The National's new album, High Violet, hits stores today, though you can be forgiven for believing it was already released weeks ago. The album has been streaming online since last month, and its release was presaged by the most aggressive press blitz of the band's career, including a fawning New York Times Magazine profile. It's also garnering the Brooklyn indie-rock band some of their best reviews yet, and considerable album-of-the-year buzz, though to these ears High Violet doesn't quite seem the cohesive statement the band's last album was. Where Boxer's was an easy, lived-in mood piece, High Violet can sound fussy and labored over. It still stuns frequently, but its large-scale songs lose some of the confessional intimacy that made Alligator and Boxer such inviting revelations.
The week's other big release is Sea of Cowards, the rush-released follow-up to Dead Weather's rush-released debut. It's a better sequel to Horehound, heavier, catchier and unashamed to give listeners' what they want: plenty of Jack White, who this time splits vocals almost equally with his female doppelganger Alison Mosshart.
Also competing for your dollars at independent record stores:
* Latin, the satisfying new disc from the instrumental-electronic band Holy Fuck
* Here's To Taking It Easy, a goofy slice of post-Elephant 6 Americana from the band Phosphorescent
* At Echo Lake, a desperate Grateful-Dead-meets-Guided-By-Voices hybrid record from Woods
* Treats, the debut record from indie-pop buzz band Sleigh Bells
* And Warm Slime, an utterly insane psychedelic-rock record from Thee Oh Sees, which might be the week's most overlooked new album.
Meanwhile, mixtape tycoons The Empire are exploiting Lil Wayne's prison sentence with Rikers Island Redemption, a graceless mix that recycles widely available verses from Weezy and his protege Drake and splices them into overly busy, drop-laden "new" songs. It's not worth the download.
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