The National: The Virginia EP/A Skin, A Night DVD

Label: Beggars Banquet

Double-barrel National action coming your way. The DVD is a making-of documentary about Boxer, good enough for that sort of thing. The real meat, though is the 12-song EP (EP? I remember when 12 songs was a full-length album). It collects a few new songs (one including Sufjan Stevens), B-sides, outtakes, demos, and live stuff; some has been previously released, but it’s good to have it collected in one place, and only the most fanatical collectors would have most of it. The band’s trademark sound emerges intact and compelling, more intimate in tone, of course, on the demos. There’s intensity on every track, but the energy really picks up at the end with the concert material. A melancholic cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Mansion on the Hill,” complete with plangent cello, builds masterfully, “Fake Empire” gets a big boost from a horn section, and “About Today” crescendos with a My Bloody Valentine-esque wall of guitar. Ignore that misguided Pitchfork review, this is a must-have for all National fans. (Steve)