When The Hair On Your Head Doesn't Move

After a summer of ambivalent listening, my problem with the National's new record, "High Violet," is that it's too well composed. No note is struck or noise created without careful thought. More importantly, no emotion is created without deliberate calibration. There's excitement, resentment and wonder on the album, as well as all the other emotions one associates with art that tries to capture being a young adult in the young 21st century. But the emotion never destabilizes the song or unsettles the listener. It's packaged exactly as the band wants it, nothing more or nothing less, which might point to the National's skill to execute what they envision, but also creates an album that is, above all, buttoned-up.

Jon Pareles, the Times' chief music critic, noted in a recent concert review, that for all of the band members' confessions to constant tinkering and endless versions of their songs, "the National keeps ending up in the same place." Pareles referred largely to the band's sound, but this also applies to its overall resonance -- busy but overly cautious. The National's sound has gradually bent toward the stately bluster over its previous two albums, regardless of Pitchfork's egging on with excellent reviews and the higher sales. However, now that the band has arrived there, they sound more straitjacketed than they should. No more yelping background vocals for them, which they had to such great effect on "Secret Meeting," which opened the 2005 record "Alligator."

The National knows what it wants and executes it well, but when you're expertly composed and the hair on your head doesn't move, ossification is too close for comfort. Anyway, form your own opinion. Above is a live performance of "Lemonworld," one of the new record's better songs.