July 9, 2003
The French and Greg Kot Dig The National
The National's new album, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, won't be released in America until September 2nd but it's already causing a stir in some quarters.
We just returned from a trip to France where we caught the end of the band's second European tour. It seems they are the joie de vivre for a lot of people over there, especially in Paris, where The National played three shows, selling out 300 seat venues and making French people swoon to the tunes as they sang along with Matt Berninger's lyrics.
The French, however, are not alone.
Even though it won't be released in the US for two months, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers has already been touted as one of the year's top 10 records by the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot. He cited the new album on Sound Opinions, he and Jim DeRogatis's weekly radio show on WXRT in Chicago, "the world's only rock'n'roll talk show." You can listen to the "Mid-Year Top Ten" segment in Real Audio by [LINK TO COME]clicking here. DeRogatis and Kot talk about the band for about three minutes, starting at the 2:00 minute mark.
And I quote: "I got this a month ago and I've been listening to it obsessively ever since... The White Stripes record is not in my top 10, no Elephant is not as good as last year's record but this one is. It's by a group called The National... I do think this new record, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, is better than the Interpol record and better than the National's first record. It's a terrific record because they do bring out the rock side as well as the atmospheric side. You're waiting for this guy to explode and explode he does." Cue: "Available." See the rest of Kot's top 10 on the Sound Opinions website.
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