If you’re unaware of my profuse love for The National, you won’t be for long. The Brooklyn-based Cincinnatians’ fourth album, Boxer, ranked second on my end-of-year list for 2007 but in retrospect could just as easily have topped my list for any year in recent memory. The album is a subtle snapshot of the lost, late-night twentysomething at the crossroads of youth and responsibility—the story of “another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults,” as vocalist Matt Berninger states beautifully in “Mistaken for Strangers.”
The live studio performance is an interesting bastard child when it comes to music we identify with strongly, unable to rely on either the energy of a crowd or the forethought of an album recording. At worst, it can destroy a moment captured on recording with its unremarkableness; at best, it can reveal the transcendent quality of a song, allowing for new angles to approach the material from and new layers to discover. This week, I came across two radio sessions with The National that exemplify the second option. The first, the White Session, was recorded near the time of Boxer’s release on France’s Inter radio, and makes a stunning companion piece to the album. Some of the differences are small but impacting, like the change in the chorus lyrics of “Brainy,” substituting “Come on, let me call you love” to “Come on, in the car, you, love” and tipping the song’s delicate balance between romance and restraining order in favor of the latter. Similarly, the “Squalor Victoria” one-liner fadeout becomes a tagline and guitar coda, altering the lingering impression left on the listener. In other instances, the change is simply approaching the song with a new energy, as in the case of the completely revitalized “Apartment Story,” easily one of the session’s highlights.
As a relative latecomer to the National bandwagon, my perspective on the Black Session, recorded in November 2003, is different, having only heard two of the non-Alligator tracks (“Murder Me Rachael” and “Slipping Husband”) in their original recorded forms. These recordings stand on their own, the songs rawer and more passionate than much of the band’s more recent material. The set’s epicenter, “Cherry Tree,” marks a rare moment for Berninger as he sheds his yuppie everyman persona in favor of something more grandiose and sinister.
Only one song appears on both sessions, “About Today.” Originally released on the Cherry Tree EP, it ironically seems more Boxer-ized in its Black Session form, with its insistent drums and confessional anti-crescendo. The White Session version is something entirely different for the band, employing an almost wall-of-sound string section that carries the song higher and higher, comparable only to the ending of the studio version of “Fake Empire” in its ethereality. The two recordings are beautiful in their own right, but when brought together, they’re something extraordinary.
The National- Black Session (zip)
The National- White Session (zip)
Buy the albums, and check their website for tour dates and more info.
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