Review Summary: Alligator is a delightfully melancholic album on the surface that can end up being more than just an album when you get to grips with its lyrics.
I don't know of many bands that can mix what sounds like a lazy and uncaring lead singer with a minimalistic rhythm section and form something so grandiose.
Alligator is The National's 3rd album and in my opinion the album where they find their sound. Opener Secret Meeting's lyrics seem to land somewhere along the issues of paranoia. Whilst the music itself pulls the right heart strings, it echoes the 'suspiciousness' of paranoia when coupled with lyrics like "I think this place is full of spies, I think they're on to me” The suspiciousness doesn’t end there, at the end of the song the backing vocals seem to mumble something. Considering how lazy Berninger sounds you would expect to understand what these backing singers are saying. Yet to this day there is still confusion, Berninger has said he will never reveal what the actual words are but people have suggested “Draw an ace and fold it” “Drop the dice and roll it” or my personal favourite “Italian Ice Importer”.
After listening to the first song it’s easy to understand that Berninger's voice and vocal arrangements are what is going to drive Alligator. Berninger’s voice is soft, deep and soothing and it compliments the music superbly. Every pluck of a string beat of a drum or press of a key is done with tender loving care, so much so that if they get any softer they might not be playing at all.
There is no doubt this album has some elements of country and folk. Finger picking and slide guitar feature heavily on this album. The drums take a back seat throughout most of the album which means when they really do get a beating on songs such as ‘Abel’ and ‘Mr November’ it makes you appreciate them even more. A wise decision considering the type of music they create.
The album has several really incredible songs as well as the aforementioned ‘Secret Meeting’. ‘All the Wine’ starts like Band of Horses ‘Funeral’, the drums kick in and then a deep drop of a subtle bass accompany Berninger into a song that can be cut up and tossed back together to form lyrical meanings of being drunk, being in love, being a father or all of these.
‘Abel’ sounds like someone else is singing. This is the first time you really get to hear Berninger go for it. This is one of the heavier (if you can call it that) songs on the album. What’s it about? Well, I hate to say this but when you look at ‘Secret Meeting’ and this song, it sounds like old Matt Berninger might have some kind of mental issues to go with his alcoholism (All The Wine), make of it what you will, that’s what’s beautiful about this album when you explore it fully.
Whilst I’m blabbering on about Berninger’s vocals, it’s important to acknowledge the ‘forget about this world for a moment and immerse yourself in your own private utopia’ type music that gets behind Berninger in almost every song, most notably ‘Looking for Astronauts’ and ‘Lit Up’.
‘Mr November’ is probably The National’s set piece. Like Abel, it really sores with its anthemic end “I won’t *** us over, I’m Mr. November”.
On the surface this album is delightfully melancholic, under its scales is an album that can be dissected anyway you like and one that really should be dissected in order to appreciate its full beauty. Overall no amount of soft/lazy vocals and minimalistic music in the world will ever be captured as ‘full’ on a record as it has been on ‘Alligator’… until they made The Boxer.
