Project for my graphic design class about raising awareness for an issue—I chose shark conservation

Squishybzp · 2023-06-04T14:53:27+00:00

Not a bad piece of writing or evaluation per se, but it can't fully decide if it's an opinion piece or trying to be a semi-objective overview. Lots of personal opinions on the band's music and career arc and also kind of rests on the massively subjective and totally unprovable idea that "generally good albums have good album art and vice versa for bad albums." Yeah, there's intentionality behind album cover design, probably more so for a band with members from a design background like The National, but often album art is just a carefully crafted ink blot, something people project their own feelings about the album onto by virtue of it being the primary visual for the sound and the era. Sometimes it so happens there's an incongruity there; you like the music but not the album art or the other way around. IMO, it's less that The National is some exception to a correlation between "good" music and "good" album art and more that the author recognized a trend in their own feelings.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-24T22:13:41+00:00

English is my first language and I have no idea what it means. But it do sound good.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-23T03:08:11+00:00

Matt’s increasing verbosity with each record has officially gone too far.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-16T12:09:04+00:00

I really want to love this song, on paper it works for me but something gets lost in the production, I feel. The big electronic kick drum is just too present and cold for me to get wrapped up in the warmth of this song—I can even imagine the same arrangement just with a softer, live kick drum and it would make more sense. I’m not one who’s totally against Bryan using drum machines, but for this song it was the first thing I heard and I haven’t gelled with it yet. I’d go about 6.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-14T22:40:21+00:00

I’d go 6.5 or so, kind of waiting for it to click. Musically it’s really well put together, some of the lyrics are fantastic and hit super close, but somehow it hasn’t fully connected for me yet.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-12T00:09:51+00:00

Big 9! Maybe the most replayable song on the album.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-10T22:40:12+00:00

I'd go like 5.5? Weird song! It's super straightforward, no denying that. Matt is extra lyrically direct here and then Taylor's directness somehow still manages to be jarring compared to his. Their vocal deliveries also are worlds apart in places, and musically it's not a standout. But even despite all that, it kinda works for me? It's brooding but has a brightness to it, not very "National-y" but something about how stark it is almost loops it back around to being interesting.

Squishybzp · 2023-05-03T20:00:56+00:00

Sounds like you figured out what we’re missing?

Squishybzp · 2023-05-01T22:43:48+00:00

Only 10 I feel comfortable giving this early in the album’s life. Not much to say that hasn’t already been said, but one of the most plainly emotionally crushing songs from TN. One of those songs I’ll never forget the first time I heard it.

Squishybzp · 2023-04-25T17:29:27+00:00

Respect, I’m with you on that “Christmas morning” feeling and did virtually the same thing with Weird Goodbyes. I did cave with this album and did listen to the first three singles several times when they each came out, but not since, so I’m still pumped to hear them again!

Squishybzp · 2023-04-23T12:16:02+00:00

context

Squishybzp · 2023-04-20T16:12:13+00:00

Really good article. Regardless of how the album ends up being received, I think it’s going to occupy a special spot in the discography when thinking about their long history; where IAETF seemed largely directed by an outside perspective in Mike Mills, this one sounds like it was driven by the band just wanting to work together again.

Squishybzp · 2023-04-11T18:05:23+00:00

Same boat here. I listened to the other three when they came out but have avoided them since—nothing like going into a new album from a favorite band as fresh as possible!

Squishybzp · 2023-04-09T12:31:14+00:00

Personal favorite is Cars: Freedom, Style, Sex, Power, Motion, Colour, Everything by Stephen Bayley. It’s more of an “artsy,” coffee table style book, the author deliberately does not focus on stats or engineering so much. It’s more a bunch of beautifully photographed case studies of what he considers notable car designs through history with an excellent introduction.

Squishybzp · 2023-04-04T12:16:24+00:00

Oh this is just tremendous—if you ever decide to have prints made, please let me know!

Squishybzp · 2023-03-28T12:12:19+00:00

I flip flop on this question all the time, any given week I might feel like I rediscover how much I love the storybook vibes of Lonesome Dreams or the darkness of Vide Noir, and then Long Lost is a personal favorite, but in the end Strange Trails is just so hard to beat. Not a single song I don’t like, and while every LH album has a specific feeling that you really can’t get anywhere else, with ST that feeling is just extra perfect and encapsulates why I fell in love with the band. Variety, storytelling, wanderlust, mystery, nostalgia and freshness.

Squishybzp · 2023-03-26T01:55:55+00:00

I share this reading, especially with the delivery. "Listen, if I change my mind, I'll come by just to look at it, how about that?"

Squishybzp · 2023-03-25T13:47:47+00:00

that’s how you know it’s an instant National classic

Squishybzp · 2023-03-24T12:20:50+00:00

Regardless of which is the “best” or my favorite overall song of the bunch, I have to give it up for Lost in Time and Space as being the best album opener. It sets the stage, the underlying narrative and mood of the album perfectly, and that dreamlike outro going directly into Never Ever just always hits.

Squishybzp · 2023-03-14T14:34:45+00:00

Neckties. Last count was about 40. I just think they’re neat.

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