Boxer

My favorite The National album. Great indie rock with fantastic songs (Slow Show, Gospel, Mistaken For Strangers, Brainy). I really like the witty and decadent lyrics.

I do enjoy The National! And I enjoyed this album, too.

Probably my favourite National album, delighted to see it on this list, and there is clearly room for two albums from them on the main list.

This one was a surprise. I listened to this one a lot a long time ago. I could never get into anything else by them even though it always seemed like their newer stuff was more popular. I've always loved the vibe of the whole album. The songs go so well together. I'm not sure the album is that groundbreaking but I think the sound is a little unique. No real dud on the album.

Oh yes one of my favourite albums. Absolute banger in my opinion, really atmosphere, great lyrics, lovely sounds, banging.

Not a bad song on here… ok besides “Brainy” there’s not a bad song on here.

There’s not much left to say about Boxer that hasn’t been said already. More than 15 years on, it remains a modern classic. Moody, beautiful, restrained yet emotionally loaded. The songwriting is sharp, the atmosphere perfectly measured, and Matt Berninger’s baritone carries a weary elegance that makes the smallest moments feel monumental.

Indie rock,folk rockpost-punk, revival.

I love the percussion on this album. The drums on Fake Empire break my brain in such a beautiful way. That’s a good thing. The National reminds me that I love my wife.

Good good

Good stuff, surprised it's not on the original list. 4 stars.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Brainy, Squalor Victoria, Ada, Fake empire, Gospel

Album starts really strong, mellow folk alt vibe... though the lyrics are completely befuddling to me. I have no idea what they are talking about. It gets a little tired by the end, but overall above average.

Fourth studio album? His voice is very commanding. He's got presence, that's for sure. Got a lot of U2 in the first song. The drums starting and stopping. Squalor Victoria sounds like something... Can't place my ears on it yet.

I love the voice of the singer. Although most song sound very alike, I enjoyed this album

A great album by the national. So many of their stuff sounds similar but their sound is very much their own so it’s hard to say which album is truly best. This one has a significantly more raw feeling to it compared to high violet but not as much as alligator. The national really just makes music for the semi successful educated people stuck in the routine despair of life. And sometimes that’s exactly what is needed. 7.9/10

The National have swirled around my musical consciousness for a while now but I keep forgetting how amazing they are. I need to set an reminder on my phone to listen to The National at least once a month.

I've started to become weary of the user recommended albums and have stopped listening to them, in the main. This, however, piqued my interest as something I wanted to hear. It was as expected and didn't disappoint. A great, brooding indie rock album. Rating: 4 Playlist track: Fake Empire Date listened: 23/01/25

I like the mellow feel. Nice!

Sure I’ll listen to some more National. I get tired of the deep monotonous vocals after a while but it’s still good music.

The National has always sounded overrated to my ears, which does not mean they don't have assets once in a while. In a sense, they're very much like early Coldplay: their restraint and relative lack of dynamics passes off as subtlety for certain crowds, but I'm often wondering if said crowds might actually be too complacent and narrow-minded to invest in similar acts that offer the same sort of recipe, albeit with a little more *punch*, liveliness or genuine gravitas (more on that later) -- or if, conversely, those crowds' ears are attuned to very specific wonders that can't be found anywhere else, and that I would unfortunately be unable to perceive myself (which would make me the narrow-minded one here). Checking out the highest rated and lowest rated albums from the person who submitted this LP suggests that we see eye to eye about a lot of great music, which is always awesome, sincerely (and we also very majorly agree about which ones should be considered as duds, ha ha). So I guess opening my shakras a little can be worth the effort. That person can't be *fully* wrong here. On that same line of thought, it is also obvious that the omission of this record in the original list doesn't make a lot of sense since Dimery and co. chose to include *High Violet*. I didn't need the inclusion of *Boxer* in the users list to listen to it today. It's an album that I already revisit once in a while, if only to finetune my personal assessment of The National on general terms. Sitting in between the somewhat more abrasive, borderline garage tones of *Alligator* and the glossier soundscapes of *High Violet*, *Boxer* is The National's magnum opus, enough said. File that mind-boggling omission in the 1001 Albums book with the fistful of other LPs by a prominent act that were left aside for absolutely no good reason, even if another LP of theirs made the list, inexplicably. Dimery's book didn't have Weezer's Blue Album -- 1st in this users' list!-- The Breeders' *Last Splash*, Björk's *Homogenic*, Grandaddy's *The Sophtware Slump*, Lana Del Rey's *Norman Fucking Rockwell*, to which I would also add Nina Simone's *Little Girl Blue and probably another Fugazi album (which could be *13 Songs*, *In On The Kill Taker*, *Red Medicines* or *The Argument*, depending on the day...). Why oh WHY were all these albums ignored, for chrissake??? So even if I'm not a *huge* fan of the National, I want to support this addition in the users list, at least. Hence my quite positive mark. Sorry for the long rant up there (as usual). I don't have much to say about the album itself, oddly enough (and also, I have a lot of work today). Let me just say that the two consecutive slaps in the face that "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken For Strangers" are can't be easily dismissed. Those two songs are a hell of a way to open *any* record, and only for this, this one deserves to be noticed. Awesome chord progressions, vocals and instrumentation. And yeah, here are the dynamics I sometimes find lacking in the rest of the band's output. The rest of the tracklist offers material that I generally find as effective as the one found in Interpol, Other Lives or Tindersticks's best records. Maybe it's not enough to make fall in love with the album as a *whole*. But even with that in mind (and with some of those other records I've just evoked not making it to any list here), I still want to leave the door open for *Boxer*. So thanks to whoever thought of adding it here. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 2 Albums from the users list I *might* include in mine later on: 6 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't include in mine: 4

Sweet, melancholic and satisfying. I felt transported.

American indie, like a high class version of the landfill indie dominating the British charts around the same time. Not a huge degree of variety among the songs, but enough to hold the attention. The band are probably now more famous for their collaborations and production work, but this album goes a long way to show why they got those opportunities.

Probably The National’s strongest project, and certainly more consistent than High Violet which made it on the original list of 1001 albums. It kicks off with one of their greatest songs Fake Empire and goes to strength to strength from there, whether it’s an emotionally wrought ballad or a sardonic mid-tempo ballad - it’s quite a lot of ballads to be honest, but they all sound really good It’s got the energy of their earlier records and the production prowess of their later ones, with gorgeous soundscapes and songwriting throughout

They certainly spawned a lot of imitators

There is only one The National album on the original list and since I got in December 2023 I've seen The National twice at festivals. It's a great show and Matt Berninger is so enticing to watch live. They really do match the sad dad rock vibe, which they fully acknowledge and embrace. Also it was really cool to see Aaron Dessner live since I love his collabs with Taylor. My friend also met Matt just wandering around the streets and told me he is a super cool guy. Saying all that, The National's music is just good. It's nothing mind blowing but it's not bad. It's great music that is easy to listen to. Once again, sad dads! My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Indifferent. Would prefer this over the one on the list.

Totally new to me. The first song's tempo transition is quite a unique trick, I loved it. All in all a really interesting piece of work in a number of ways, I enjoyed it and appreciate the share.

Very entertaining. 4 stars, minus 1 just for being a little melancholy, but oh what music they make.

This was lovely, should have made the original list. Elegant, evocative and highly listenable. Fave Songs: Apartment Story, Slow Show, Guest Room, Mistaken for Strangers, Fake Empire

The National is one of those bands - I never find the music objectionable, all very competent. It's got that Gen-X male roots-adjacent alternative vocal thing which gets old for me and I find works better in a lower-fi, see e.g. Smog. Just fine.

I think I get confused between the national and the 1975. Bit droney, not too bad though.

Right between a 3 and a 4. More interesting than I had assumed

Still haven’t clicked for me

It's not the most exciting album. Lovely vocals, lovely lyrics... Dull musically

I enjoyed but it never seemed to reach a pinnacle.

Yea, nice enough

The least sleepy album by everybody's favorite auditory Ambien producer, The National. Not sure what's up with this band's sound, but the second a soundwave of one of their songs touches my ear, my whole body powers down like a cyborg getting unplugged. I think I should like this more than I actually do. Better than "High Violet", but so is smoking asbestos.

I am as ever torn about the National. Sorry Benji and James. I have enjoyed their stuff in my 20s but it doesn't appeal in the same way. I find it a bit more samey. Some of it I think has beautiful melodies and stuff then others I just think is quite boring. Maybe you have to be in the right mood

The National's following album High Violet was the one that made the actual 1001 list, but it seems we have a dissenting opinion! Hate to be a bummer, but this sounds a lot like High Violet in my mind. So, I'll just copy and paste what I wrote for that album: While the band is certainly competent and utilizes production techniques that compliment the songs, but something about the National comes across as dull, subdued, dispassionate. Nothing bad on this album, but nothing to rave about either. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: If only to replace High Violet. We don't need both albums though.

I tried to listen to this 3 or 4 times and for various reasons it kept getting turned down or off. So I heard the first 2 songs multiple times and they still made zero impression on me. I don’t dislike it, it’s just not doing anything to capture my attention.

July 21, 2025 HL: "Fake Empire", "Squalor Victoria", "Apartment Story", "Racing Like a Pro" I had a feeling I'd love it after High Violet, but I was missing something from the experience once the first track, "Fake Empire" concluded (probably my fave part of the album). Like, the Apple Music blurb about Boxer basically describes it as high art for the working class, and... maybe I just wasn't listening hard enough. The orchestral parts, especially toward the end of the album, were really nice and made the slower patches worth it. now that the dust has settled, it's probably a 3.5

I've heard of The National, but I don't think I've ever had the pleasure. I didn't hate this but I feel like if you want "sincere slow music by a deep voiced guy" then Eddie Vedder is just right there.

Tired of hearing this band and their most recent LP on indie radio lately – while this LP contains my favorite song of theirs (“Mistaken For Strangers”), it’s still filled mostly with the droll, wandering tracks that the band continually chooses to make instead of the inspired indie rock they’re clearly capable of. Not sure how much Berninger is involved in the instrumental songwriting, but his tendency to mostly talk the lyrics he seems to think are so inspired definitely weighs down most of the band’s compositions.

Their drummer is great, so much so that he lifts up the songs because otherwise they would be on the ground. The vocalist has his style and it is understandable, but I think the musicians are more powerful than this relaxed rhythmic style that does not fit well enough in all the tracks.

These guys already had an album in the original list. It's not awful, but what a waste of a choice. 2/5.

Indie rock, folk rock, post-punk revival. Rollo. Un 2.

Boxer is a bit dull for me, good voice, some decent bits but never getting to a point where it excites me or lifts me, lots of it sounds the same too. 2.

The music is well-recorded and crisp, but the dude just intoning a range of about 3-4 deep notes just isn't enough to warrant a memorable album. Melody is everything.

It was okay, not really my thing.

Indie rock, folk rock, post-punk revival. Rollo. Un 2.

Sincere serious indie is so boring to me. I’m sorry. It’s okay if this is your thing but it ain’t mine

Listening to this morose motherfucker on what was meant to be a cheering spring morning walk was absolutely a mistake. Reading (with increasing bafflement) all the glowing reviews, I see that another The National album made it to the main list, which I had apparently blotted out of my memory. Re-reading my review of High Violet, I can say that this album is better than that one - at least this one doesn't have the overworked grandiosity of High Violet - but don't mistake that faint praise for me liking this album, because I absolutely do not. It's like Death Cab For Cutie without the charm, optimism or likeability.