High Violet is by far and large The National’s best album to date. I can’t help but connect with it lyrically, and musically it is brilliant.  This and Beach House Teen Dream are my two top albums for 2010, and I have a hard time seeing anything even coming close to topping those this year.

Full of rich, heavy sounds and notes, lush lyrics and haunting melodies, the rest of their catalog feels cheesy compared to this. I realize that is probably going to offend, but I don’t want to go back to Boxer or Alligator after this. I was a National fan with their previous records, but a casual fan. High Violet is going to be in my top albums of all time. Every single song is amazing.

I would love to be able to recommend a couple tracks to listen to but they are all to good to pick a favorite. I thought that I had one or two but after listening to it some more I couldn’t dream of picking.  Just start at the beginning…