The National - Alligator

Alligator is the third studio album by American indie rock band The National, originally released in April 2005 via Beggars Banquet Records.

The National, for those who are just coming in, is comprised of two sets of brothers - Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Scott and Bryan Devendorf - and Matt Berninger (plus shadow member Padma Newsom). 

The National may sound like a garage band turned down, but there's as much primal energy lurking behind Alligator as in any group of city kids with guitairs in a dusty warehouse.

While Matt Berninger's lyrics and conversational delivery rely heavily on the kind of literate self-absorption that fuels so much of the indie rock, he never comes off as preachy or unaware that the world would manage just fine without him. Rather, he uses metaphor and humour as bullet points for a profound sense of displacement and anger.

Tracks like the brooding but lovely "Karen", are effective because the listener is brought into the story slowly, almost amiably, before being led to the plank. Berninger's wry, filthy, and often eloquently sad tales of materialism, sex, and loneliness are augmented by the stellar duel-sibling attack of the band, who flesh out each track with so many little creative flourishes that it takes a few listens to break them down into palatable portions.

There are upbeat moments found within - "Lit Up" and "Looking For Astronauts" - but for the most part the National are content with playing the genial fatalists, and while "All The Wine" seems designed to serve as the record's desolate backbone, "Baby, We'll Be Fine", with its quick changes, lush orchestration, and winsome refrain is, despite an elegiac delivery, Alligator's loneliest track, and like each part of this fine collection of city-weary poetry, it's as brief as it is affecting.

Alligator captures the hopeless sentiment with perfectly balanced musicianship.

This album is a 2011 reissue on 180 gram heavyweight lime green coloured vinyl with a download code, pressed in the UK via Beggars Banquet.