Few who bought The National’s near-perfect Alligator will have been disappointed by the immediately memorable and moving collection of songs it showcased. A record fuelled by the ambitious energy of a band on the brink of greatness, its dizzying creativity and rare emotional intensity was long left unmatched. It was doubtlessly an extremely difficult achievement to follow and it is therefore testament to the Brooklyn-based quintet’s talent and innovation that their fourth LP seems no less than an effortless leap forward in a career that thus far, has seen very few wrong footings.

Those of us expecting another Alligator may well have felt a twinge of disappointment on hearing The National’s latest offering. However, as the press release suggests, it is a different record altogether. Boxer is the sound of a band for whom the battle - if ever there was one – has very much been won. The frantic guitar-led anthems of its predecessor have all but been replaced by a host of confident, piano-enthused ballads and if at times Alligator can be seen as the paranoid, drug-fuelled ecstasy of the night before, Boxer might well sit happily as the sound of the morning after.

That’s not to say Boxer lacks punch; far from it. Perfectly-rendered songs like the anthemic ‘Guest Room’ and the smouldering ‘Apartment Story’ are clearly mined from the same vein as tracks like the anthemic ‘Secret Meeting’ and ‘Friend of Mine’; songs that first took the band to a new and wider audience. But rarely does this new record shake off its laid back-charm and, despite its title, there’s certainly no brawling here. Instead, ‘understatement’ is the name of the game and, on the whole, Boxer is a far more subtle and painstakingly-wrought affair. 

It’s an album of real consistency in terms of both atmosphere and tone and, while that makes it more difficult than it was on Alligator to pick out the singles, it also makes for a more confident and mature-sounding record altogether. Still drawing heavily upon the presence and ragged, poetic charm of singer Matt Berninger, whose lyrics remain as interesting and as twisted as ever, Boxer focuses on intricately woven layers of melody and sound that demand a more sensitive and sustained listen.

It is the vaguely political album-opener ‘Fake Empire’, with its lilting piano melody, which really sets the tone, building as it does, from a simple piano/vocal intro to an unexpected crescendo of raucous brass. ‘Mistaken for Strangers’ startles with its caustic guitar sounds and rumbling menace while softer, piano-led tracks like ‘Squalor Victorian’ and ‘Slow Show’ act as excellent examples of The National’s natural grasp of in-song dynamics. These new tracks, while at times breathtakingly fragile, never suffer from alack of drive or energy and, bolstered by Bryan Devendorf’s fantastic drumming, rarely fail to blossom into engaging and effortlessly-uplifting compositions. - Isaac Howlett

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