The National - Terrible Love (Alternate Version)

This is of course The National’s year – we just live in it. As the band set off on a UK tour, there’s an expanded reissue of ‘High Violet’ in the shops, (presumably) handily timed for a few “Album of the Year” stickers to be slapped on the front, and this take on opener ‘Terrible Love’ gets a single release to drum up interest. Clearly it’s easy to be cynical, but it’s unfair to – why shouldn’t The National enjoy their moment in the sun? They spend enough time in the gloom.

So what’s new here? Its brooding potency is undiminished, but this brush and polish does give ‘Terrible Love’ a shot of vitality, welding a thumping great beat on its back where once there was just the weight of expectancy. Out goes the haze and in comes – whisper it – Eno-phase U2 atmosphere. It’s bigger, less controlled, altogether more anthemic.

Whether all this is a good thing depends on how puritanical you plan to be about what was already a fine song. There’s no less power in that hook – “It takes an ocean not to break” – it’s still loaded, still awe-inspiring, it’s just got a few more kilojoules of energy behind it now. If that turns them into Arcade Fire, well, worse things have happened, right?