Saturday, August 27, 2011
A song a day: The National - Exile, Vilify
It seems that the National are everywhere I'm not at the moment. Having missed them in Sydney last year, I've just missed them in Europe and found out they'll be playing Sydney again in November while I'll still be traveling. While this is slightly irritating, I have burned a hole through High Violet and am getting steadily impatient for some new music. Happily, they have contributed this song to the Portal 2 (yes, it's a game indie snobs) and you know what? I like it a lot. While it is pretty simple I do love nice word play and the hook of 'does it feel like a trial?' could be read as either an actual or hypothetical trial or a trial through a test of endurance. I'm happy to say, if they're willing to donate a tune like this to a game soundtrack, I think it bodes while for any upcoming albums. Oh yeah, I'm totally getting Portal 2 for my xbox when I get home too...
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what are you talking about "donate a track"??? Folks like Trent Reznor made their careers on video game sound tracks, and this is Portal we're talking about- probably one of the highest Chachets in the industry- or haven't you seen all the short films inspired by Portal, or all the uke and geek covers of the song by hipsters on Youtube? I'd say it's a savvy move on their part. Even so, The National are shaping up to be America's answer to the Bad Seeds- a band that does traditional ballads in a whole new way. What I want is to see them and Wilco share a stage. So, Portal? Yes. The National? Yes. Putting them together? Double plus good.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - "donate" is totally the wrong word. Probably something along the lines of "got filthy rich and huge exposure by selling a song to Portal." As the games industry is bigger than the film industry these days, I've got no problem with it (especially as I loved the original portal game - I manged to finish it with the aid of youtube tutorials).
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you're saying about the Bad Seeds ballad reference though, there's something very elegant about what they do. I think they're one of the best bands around at the moment.