The National - Trouble Will Find Me

A lot of online tabs peg "I Should Live in Salt" as 17/8, which at first seems ... unlikely. But I guess I can hear how someone could count that.

Anyway, anyone got any information on the new album?

All I can find is that it's being recorded now, unlikely to come out this year and that they've "gone electronic" (whatever that means)

arab strap is a good band to enjoy while waiting for a new national release

I kind of get the spirit of why people think the National are dull. I was at some music thing where I met a girl who told me the National were her favorite band and when I asked her why she replied "They romanticize the ordinary." Like it's the poetic stream of consciousness of the average intelligent thirty something who is falling deep into ennui.

But there is something there lurking under the surface that makes them just interesting enough for me to not skip some of their tracks when they show up on shuffle. A subtle mythos that makes their songs become more than they are.

i think what's lurking beneath the surface is a killer band full of killer players who mostly write songs that are interesting and good

Trouble Will Find Me is probably in my top ten in favorite of albums of the decade, so far.

It was my favorite of 2013 for sure.

when I asked her why she replied "They romanticize the ordinary."

this is okay but the correct answer is bryan devendorf

New album soon?

Sleep Well Beast. pic.twitter.com/3IpxpigJlj

— The National (@TheNational) May 9, 2017

promising tease

New album September 8th

New track now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O6duDDkhis

guitar solo!

That was a shock! Is it their first?

the title drop is a bit clumsy but I like everything else about this

That's excellent.

damn what a band

The title sounds like an Adam Curtis film.

This new track fuckin' rules.

Bought tickets for the London Monday gig. Anyone else going?

Not for £40 I ain't.

the local "event" show is over 100 bucks, ick.

Anyway, new song and album. 16 tracks on this motherfucker

https://youtu.be/lBcVrb-snPk

new song sounds exactly like what i expected the last record to sound like. cautiously hyped

the STRINGS, wow

yeah, when they said SWB was going to be "electronic" and "experimental" or whatever I was surprised at how conventional it ended up sounding, this is a little more adventurous. hoping the tidy length is a sign of more Boxer-like economy as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Uow9aNCRU

album trailer featuring another song that sounds really great

fuck, the guest vocals on "you had your soul with you" are gail ann dorsey?

the national are the only good indie rock band

album is apparently 68 minutes long

i always want them to make shorter records but given how many times i've listened to this new song this morning, maybe this time it won't matter

i got it worse than anyone else and
i just can't find a way to forgive myself

i had only one thing to do
but i couldn't do it yet

i guess it's early to say this but this is the best national song i've ever heard

also this is definitely a live, unedited drum track that is meant to *sound* cut-and-pasted and it's one of the most dazzling devendorf performances, i can barely wrap my head around it

oooh well spotted

oh wow i'm pretty astounded they've done something as good as this. hopefully the rest of the album delivers because last album had a promising lead single too but was a bit underwhelming overall

Alligator is still by far their peak.

trouble is their best album until further notice imo

Brad i love your enthusiasm

I'm not sure that drum part is *entirely* live - I think I hear some subtle hi-hat programming in there, at least - but it is entirely awesome.

yeah on further listens there's a drum machine exporting tiny hi-hat fills every few seconds

Pretty sure that second new song is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8yehVUF8h0

Extra drums explained by extra drummers (cf. Radiohead, Fugazi). Devendorf is still a monster/machine.

wait are there two drummers on this song

I dunno! But that live video just above feature at least two people drumming along with Devendorf. So ... maybe? Or maybe just a little here and there? I still think it's largely him plus a minimal programming assist.

glad The National finally decided to make a concept album about the dearly departed FX series Justified

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY22IpVkQp0

here's a compilation of recordings of the unreleased songs they played on the last tour - all of them are on the new one except "sometimes i don't think" but i expect it'll be there under a different title.

"so far, so fast" is nearly 8 minutes and has an extended sax solo that reminds me of the blade runner soundtrack

xpost idk "light years" is pretty crushing

New video/track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FQtSn_vak0

The National is Arab Strap for dummies, discuss

idk sounds like you're the one who needs to make a case

yeah i'm having trouble with this one. drunk maudlin radiohead for dummies maybe.

as whole-band composers, the national are way not for dummies so uh yes please elaborate.

the deep register voice detailing personal events and the attendant feelings all within a downbeat, melancholic musical framework.

although the national's lyrics are more abstract.

I like this formula, and want to like the national, but there's something too explicit or on the nose about the words, idk