The National: The Virginia EP [BEGGARS BANQUET]

Why you'll love it

This vinyl edition gathers the Boxer-era extras in one place, with a heavy printed inner sleeve and download card. Sufjan Stevens plays on the opener, and the live "Fake Empire" and "About Today" come with horns from Brussels.

This edition

• Heavy printed inner sleeve
• Download card included
• Lyrics included
• Pressed in the UK

About the album

Every great album leaves offcuts on the studio floor, and The National swept theirs up rather carefully. The Virginia EP collects the songs, sketches and live takes that orbited Boxer, the 2007 album that turned the Brooklyn band from a critics' tip into a proper concern.

Peter Katis recorded the lush opener "You've Done It Again, Virginia," "Santa Clara" and "Blank Slate" at his Tarquin Studios in Connecticut, with Sufjan Stevens and Marla Hansen in the room. Aaron and Bryce Dessner's home demos of "Slow Show" and "Rest of Years" show the bones of songs fans already love, "Lucky You" comes from a Daytrotter session, and Matt Berninger sings Bruce Springsteen's "Mansion on the Hill" live at the opening of the 2006 New York Guitar Festival.

The closing pair, "Fake Empire" and "About Today," were taped at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels for Belgian radio, with trombones and cornet swelling underneath. Noah Mintz mastered the lot, and Carin Besser adds a vocal to "Rest of Years." Vincent Moon took the photographs. It's the sound of a band who could fill a whole side with spare parts and still make you reach for a tissue.

Also at Kops: more The National on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Beggars Banquet (cat# BBQLP 260), a reissue of the 2008 EP.