High on Violet

I picked up the expanded version of the National's High Violet yesterday (7.99 at the fetus, how awesome is that?) 2 b-sides (Walk Off and Sin-Eaters--this track really should have been on the album proper), 2 unreleased tracks (Wake Up Your Saints--boozy, shambling and glorious
and You Were A Kindness--we heard this performed at first ave in august), an alternate version of Terrible Love (not a remix, so my distaste for remixes remains in place) and three live tracks (the version of Bloodbuzz, Ohio is a nice change-up from the High Violet version) what a great bonus for music fans (i just assume everyone who is a music fan is a national fan.)

Listening to the ep (and then another run through High Violet) i am again struck by how the National are the musical equivalent of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Instead of documenting the debauchery and decline of the elite of the Roaring Twenties, the National are brilliantly detailing the endless tail eating demise of the Jay and Daisys of today's comfortably complacent.

Note how i'm listing song titles...