MORE GREAT SONGS LOST ON B-SIDES

It's great to see that the art of putting stunning stuff as good as anything else you've ever released is still alive and kicking in the 21st Century.

I'm sorry to say that I don't actually have this single by The National in my collection. It had come and gone as a limited edition effort in the Spring of 2007, but thankfully, the lead track was included on the LP Boxer that hit the shops about a month later - an album that many music fans, myself included, rated as among the best of the year.

I didn't actually think it was an album that could have been improved until a couple of months back when I got my grubby mitts on the two tracks that were included on Mistaken For Strangers.

mp3 : The National - Blank Slate
mp3 : The National - Santa Clara

The former in particular is as good a song as anything the band have ever released - strong enough to have been a stand-alone single in its own right.

I would love to actually own a real-life copy of the CD...so if any of you reading this happen to have a spare one on you, I'd be prepared to make you a reasonable offer. But not the £40 that is being asked for right here.

And while I'm here, I may as well offer up the single, which, as I said can be found on this album which you should buy if you don't already own it. Click here.

mp3 : The National - Mistaken For Strangers

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who has made a habit of visiting TVV this past few weeks.

November 2008 saw more hits than at any other time since I started this bit of fluff a little over 2 years ago - and I couldn't have achieved it without the help of Ctelblog from the tremendous Acid Ted who stepped in to keep things going when my PC crashed and took almost 20,000 music files down with it...

Thankfully, I've just about restored everything again from the external hard drive, and should start finding the time soon to catch up with the very fine work carried out by every one of the bloggers you'll find on the right hand column of TVV, all of whose words, views and opinions are well worth a few minutes of your time.

Happy Listening.