I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a good couple weeks already with the National’s Boxer, due out May 22 on Beggars. It’s too early to say if it’s better/worse/same as Alligator (a favorite two years ago). In fact, it’s probably shallow/unfair to even try to compare the two. For now, the major thing that sticks out about Boxer, to me, is its tempered approach, very few of the vocal swells we heard on Alligator, like on Abel or Mr. November (awesome songs both).

In any event, director Vincent Moon has filmed a documentary titled A Skin, A Night about the band, and it has its own little place on the Interweb. So here’s some teaser action for Start a War, a song we saw the National perform at last year’s Pitchfork Festival.