The Thousands

Why do we love sad music? (I’m not being critical – I’m honestly wondering!) Maybe there’s something pretty and expansive about being sad. Plus, it’s something we can all relate to; not everyone’s been in love or dumped champagne on a stripper. But we’ve all been bummed out.

The Boxer was a divine treat for lovers of depressing music. It had tuneful melodies atop dark, mid-tempo orch rock, and lyrics that sketched out broken down Americana and big city alienation. High Violet doesn’t immediately measure up to The Boxer. It’s still anthemic and orchestral; it’s still got strange, scraping and whirring sounds and drama and cryptic, lovelorn lyrics.

What it doesn’t have is the pull of a punchy rocker like ‘Mistaken For Strangers’ to keep you coming back for repeated listens… which means it runs the risk of being so sleepy you neglect it. “Oh yeah, the new National – I have that; I keep forgetting to listen to it…” It may never quite hit the high mark of The Boxer. But High Violet still has real beauty. And enough misery to make it a must have for all you misanthropes out there!