The Virginia EP

The NationalA Skin, A Night / The Virginia EPI’m not sure that The National have the creative zest to ever reach the legendary level of accomplishment Radiohead achieved with OK Computer, but I do know these two things: 1) The last three National albums - Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, Alligator and Bozer - are amazing. Growers, but amazing; 2) The National are very aware of Radiohead’s career track, a fact proven with their latest release. Just as Radiohead released an EP (Airbag) and documentary film (Meeting People is Easy, directed by Grant Gee) in support of the success of their abovementioned signature album, OK Computer, The National have released A Skin, A Night / The Virginia EP, a two-disc CD/DVD set made to build off the success of their latest release, 2007’s Boxer.

First we have A Skin, A Night, an hour-long documentary filmed, directed and edited by a young aspiring auteur named Vincent Moon. No real sense of time is given outwardly throughout the film, but we quickly realize that we’re watching scattered blips of the band recording what would become Paste Magazine’s album of the year, Boxer. Somewhere towards the beginning of the documentary - which appears to be shot digitally on video and made to look like very hip 16x9 film stock - we’re told that the band nearly went bankrupt recording this writer’s favorite National record to date, 2005’s Alligator. The story picks up a bit, showing the band’s craft and world around them as they recorded; by the end we’re told the following in plain text: “Boxer was released on May 22, 2007. It’s the band’s most successful record to date.” And yes, it is a very good album worthy of celebrating, but c’mon, A Skin, A Night wreaks of Radiohead-isms. To hear The National, see them in photos and watch them perform, you’d never take them for a pretentious crew of wankers - which, God love ‘em, is exactly what Radiohead are. Here we see very stern, serious faces sitting still, summoning their inner genius. Needless to say, unlike Meeting People is Easy, A Skin, A Night will not make you fall further in love with the subjects. It’s just not an authentic portrait of a band at a crossroads - though that is exactly what it’s mean to be.

Further, the editing and cinematography is pretentious and gimmick-filled in a way that any film buff will spot within minutes. Calling this film a sequel to Meeting People is Easy, albeit with a different color-correcting scheme, is not just too easy, but also an insult to guys like Gee and Sam Jones, director of this era’s other classic documentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - the real sequel to Meeting People. I’m not sure how Radiohead and Gee went about producing their film, but A Skin, A Night is meant to be very artful - but, you know, in a dingy, life-on-the-edge artistic sort of way. By the end of the film, yes, we’ve seen some admittedly decent visuals and had some candid peeks into how one of the best bands on the planet goes about their work, but we’ve also seen straight through their intentions. You know the part where the lead guitarist in Stillwater mutters the words “just make us look cool” in director Cameron Crowe’s rock n’ roll epic, Almost Famous? Something like that probably happened here. All that said, after two viewings I found myself racing to revisit both Boxer and Alligator; for that, A Skin, A Night is a success. And, frankly, to most it’s probably just fine … maybe a little mind-numbing and meandering, but satisfying nonetheless.

The real payoff in this set is The Virginia EP, an era-specific collection of leftovers. This modestly presented catch-all EP offers four Boxer b-sides, four Boxer demos, a Daytrotter studio session of Sad Song’s criminally underappreciated closer, “Lucky You,” and three choice live cuts. It doesn’t play through at the band’s by-now-signature level of fluidity but, for what it is, The Virginia EP does just fine as a pit stop in-between albums. The EP’s lead cut, titled “You’ve Done it Again, Virginia,” is one of the band’s best efforts yet. Haunting, epic and tidied up with production as full-blown and labored-over as anything on Boxer or Alligator, listeners will quickly realize that, like Radiohead’s Airbag EP, The Virginia EP is no half-hearted cash-in release. Next up is “Santa Clara,” yet another track just as good as anything on Boxer; like “Virginia” and the EP’s other two studio offerings, “Blank Slate” and “Without Permission,” “Santa Clara” is more instantly accessible than most of the cuts on Boxer. The live recordings, the demos - everything, really - works well on this EP.

While the DVD isn’t going to create any new legend or even further any reputations, the new music included here is nearly as essential as the great album it supports. If you enjoyed Boxer, A Skin, A Night / The Virginia EP is a must-own, but mostly for the music half of the set.  7/10

Written by G. William Locke