High Violet

High Violet was produced by the band, with additional production by Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Peter Katis, who mixed it, and was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. The cover is Mark Fox's sculpture The Binding Force. Guests include Sufjan Stevens on harmonium and vocals, Justin Vernon, Nico Muhly on celeste and orchestration, and Padma Newsome. Berninger told The Skinny it was about a year and a half of work and their most ornate, layered and complicated piece, and that he thinks it is their best record; he told The Quietus that vocal parts from Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga had to be dropped. Bryan Devendorf told PopMatters he wanted 1980s New Wave, Love and Rockets-style drum sounds, and hired the engineer Peter Mavrogeorgis for them.

It reached number three on the Billboard 200 with about 51,000 first-week sales, five in the United Kingdom and two in Canada, and went gold in the United States and the United Kingdom. Metacritic scored it 85 and Pitchfork 8.7, and it won the 2010 Q Award for Best Album. The singles were "Bloodbuzz Ohio", "Anyone's Ghost" and "Conversation 16".