{"product_id":"the-national-boxer-mobile-fidelity-pressing","title":"The National - Boxer (Mobile Fidelity Pressing)","description":"\u003cp\u003eExperience the 2007 Record in Audiophile Sound: Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Plays with Widescreen Immediacy and Precise Detail\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Another un-innocent, elegant fall into the un-magnificent lives of adults\": That lyric distills the thematic essence of \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e, a breakthrough that transformed \u003cstrong\u003eThe National\u003c\/strong\u003e from a respected indie act into one of the 21st century's foremost bands. Replete with literary narratives, widescreen arrangements, and mysterious beauty, the album addresses issues of domesticity, maturation, and escapism with equal parts stark honesty and clever wit. Stately, rich, and intimate, it’s more relevant today than it was upon release in 2007.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSourced from the original masters, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, \u003cstrong\u003eMobile Fidelity\u003c\/strong\u003e's 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e in audiophile sound for the first time. The wider grooves of this exclusive 45RPM pressing lend to improved tracking, precise detail, and high-frequency preservation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDistinguished with superb groove definition and ultra-quiet surfaces, the collectible reissue captures the group's chamber textures, rhythmic pacing, brassy accents, and minimalist architecture with immediacy, depth, and balance. Black backgrounds practically place The National on an intimate stage in your listening space. At long last, the airiness, directness, and atmospherics the National generates at its acclaimed live shows can be experienced on record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd as far as the New York-by-way-of-Cincinnati quintet is concerned, there's no better place to start than \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e. Not only did it elevate the band's status, it cultivated the members' understanding of one another and, however difficult the journey, developed their chemistry. Faced with the perfectionist tendencies and individual preferences of two sets of brothers, and forced to contend with singer \u003cstrong\u003eMatt Berninger\u003c\/strong\u003e's unhurried lyric-writing pace, the National forged \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e out of contention and frustration. The fact the recording process was being chronicled for the documentary film \u003cem\u003eA Skin, A Night\u003c\/em\u003e likely didn't help matters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, in retrospect, it likely did. \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e is the cohesive, skilled, authoritative work of a fully functioning band whose interpersonal and professional relationships come through in the music. You can hear the evidence in siblings \u003cstrong\u003eAaron Dessner\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eBryce Dessner\u003c\/strong\u003e’s evocative guitar passages and elegant piano lines; in brothers \u003cstrong\u003eScott Devendorf\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eBryan Devendorf\u003c\/strong\u003e’s shifting time signatures, jazz-inflected directions, and simmering rhythms; in Berninger’s reserved vocals, repeated phrases, and musky baritone. They all combine to make the impressionistic stories about anxieties, doubts, self-loathing, compromising, pretending, and playing roles all the more real.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs do the tasteful orchestral, brass, and string accents performed by a cast that includes \u003cstrong\u003ePadma Newsome\u003c\/strong\u003e (violin, viola, organ), \u003cstrong\u003eSufjan Stevens\u003c\/strong\u003e (piano), and \u003cstrong\u003eThomas Bartlett\u003c\/strong\u003e (keyboards, accordion). The tastefully appointed fanfare works in give-and-take manner with Berninger’s vocals, the moody melodies, and open spaces that signal hesitation, disgust, melancholy, disillusion, complacency. \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e invites you to step inside dreams that may or may not exist, wander about, and take or leave what you please.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSongs function as cocoons, aural wraps and internal conversations necessary for navigating unrewarding jobs, social pressures, uncertain relationships, and fake empires while holding tight to a shred of dignity. Amid understated soundscapes that remain impossibly gorgeous even if they turn gloomy, protagonists confront situations in which they become unrecognizable to those who know them (\u003cem\u003eMistaken for Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e), sleepwalk through false worlds (\u003cem\u003eFake Empire\u003c\/em\u003e), try to sell themselves on soul-sucking work (\u003cem\u003eSqualor Victoria\u003c\/em\u003e), and battle with lovers (\u003cem\u003eStart a War\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelief from the tensions, disappointments, and bitter realizations comes from dressing up home situations and bonding with empathetic partners. The warm comfort of \u003cem\u003eSlow Show\u003c\/em\u003e, the reassuring spark of \u003cem\u003eApartment Story\u003c\/em\u003e, the simple enchantment of the wondrous \u003cem\u003eGospel\u003c\/em\u003e. For all its seeming malaise, \u003cem\u003eBoxer\u003c\/em\u003e resonates with a blend of cautious joyousness, hopeless romanticism, and propulsive self-awareness. It is, in effect, a balm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hold ourselves together with our arms around the stereo for hours,” Berninger sings, embracing the remedy that is music listening. “While it sings to itself, or whatever it does.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Spindizzy Dublin","offers":[{"title":"Numbered 180g Vinyl 2LP 45RPM","offer_id":58188333482329,"sku":"SDZ-46696","price":77.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/unnamed-2026-06-02T103630.151.png?v=1780393589","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/the-national-boxer-mobile-fidelity-pressing","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}