The National - Sleep Well Beast (Sept. 8th, 2017) Anticipation Thread

I thought we were going to get something pretty interesting with record given that "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" was the lead off track but man this thing is dull which is saying something given we're talking about the band who's brand is all about being sad about being normal.

"sad about being normal" -- otm

I can't tell if this is dull-good or dull-boring. Maybe more the latter.

this band does some of their best work when they're being boring imo; trying to be interesting is how you end up with a High Violet

Do people not like High Violet? it has some of their best songs on it!

It's the only one I have trouble getting into, though I have to concede I am trouble building up much interest in this one.

The first track on High Violet is mixed absolutely fucking horribly and gives me an instant headache. I don't know what they did but it's fucking horrible.

England, Vanderlyle, the one about bees, though - they're right up there as my favourite National tracks.

Mouthy have you heard the "alternate mix" of Terrible Love? IIRC that was the version they were gonna use till they decided they preferred the more raw recording.

I haven't but I'm aware of it; keep meaning to.

That Trump toilet song ("Turtleneck") embarrassed me. If this is evolution, give me more dirges.

thank you. it sucks

"guilty party" and "i'll still destroy you" are the mvps here

yeah, those and "dark side..."

the electronic flourishes don't feel very well-integrated to me

The System Dreams in Total Darkness is one of the best things they've done and it made me hopeful the album might be a bit better than usual

v happy to see hate for the "terrible love" mix. that is the worst recording of music that exists.

yeah and the fact that it fucks up such a great song too... dunno how anybody involved can feel good about that

my god i am listening to the alternate version for the first time, and i am so happy that i can listen to this song now

so i guess that confirms it's not the worst recording but the worst mix

sheesh such delicate ears around here

still can't believe laura palmer whispered the album mix of 'terrible love' into his ear

“Goodbyes always take us half an hour,” complains the narrator of Nobody Else Will Be There on leaving a party. “Can’t we just go home?”

narrator otm

If Conversation 16 wasn't on HV I would easily think of that as the best National record.

that's one of their best songs wtf!

those lyrics.

most hilarious chorus definitely.

it's like a Berninger caricature of his lyrics, which I suppose may be some sort of meta joke that I missed.

Its a bit National-by-numbers but I really like Carin At The Liquor Store off the new one too

(Xpost) I'd drop both Conversation 16 and the awful Lemonworld and then I think HV is up there with Boxer.

Lemonworld is probably my favorite national song lol

is there anything as good as "Pink Rabbits" on this one?

no

ok thanks, i'll check out the tracks y'all like. "Dark Side of the Gym" is a dope song title

why does everyone like that song title?

sounds cool. evocative. slightly absurd

it seems like a very bad song title to me. I'd feel v stupid saying something like, "hey, please play that hit The National song 'Dark Side of the Gym' for me next, my man" to the rock 'n' bowl dj

song titles should be a unique stream of numbers that take on the song's meaning if the song is good enough. naming your song 'Dark Side of the Gym' is like naming your new car design 'Toyota Matrix'

England, Vanderlyle, the one about bees, though - they're right up there as my favourite National tracks.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, September 8, 2017

OTM

well yeah, it's silly. i like that. mitigates the MOR ennui of their music & image.

xxp

it is a perfectly Nationalian song title/sentiment imo

never a good idea to talk to a DJ when they're performing imo

to a rock 'n' bowl dj, spoken song titles are the keys to the hash table containing all playable songs. but the hash function has been given to the artist, and it is plain irresponsible to title your song with a pun on another title. collisions are inevitable. especially when ginuwine - pony is playing so loudly.

what is it a pun of?

yeah I don't know what's up with the production on that first song on High Violet, it's aggressively, intentionally shitty. Anyway, new album, ok, whatever, it's fine so far.

High Violet is great and the production on the first song is great too, no idea what you are all talking about!

Not listened to the new album yet. Been a National fan since the first album, their early shows were fucking intense. With every new album I dread they inch closer to being U2.0. Please assure me this is not the case (yet).

They're nothing like U2.

i've never understood that comparison at all

Arcade Fire are a lot like U2. The National are not.

I never said they were; I said I fear for them becoming like U2. And am glad this is not the case.

I'm faintly baffled that anyone would fear that.

They went from obscuro indie-outfit to stadium-sized band; their songs got 'big audience friendly' over the years, too. I like it all the same (though I def prefer the early works). It's not that much of a stretch, surely? In any case I'm glad they aren't U2, 's all.

I must have misunderstood elements of this piece:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/27/the-national-sleep-well-beast-interview

Wherein it says they all live in different places now:

The list of places where the members of the National now reside reads like the locations for a fashionable chain restaurant: Copenhagen (Aaron), Paris (Bryce), Los Angeles (Matt), Long Island (Scott) and Cincinnati (Bryan). This is a marked change from previous records. Until 2015, Aaron owned a house in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn and rented out the upstairs duplex to Berninger; Bryce had an apartment on the same street; the Devendorfs lived not far away. When the band wanted to record an album, they just walked a few steps to the garage in Aaron’s garden.

And then there was this, which I think is what I misread:

There have been sticky times for the National, even moments where the band feared it might implode. Before beginning Sleep Well Beast, Bryce Dessner was explicit that he wanted some elements to change. “There was a transition in technology, which happened around Boxer, when we all suddenly had Pro Tools at home and we started working separately,” he says. “It wasn’t joyless, but it started to become a more methodical thing. There were hard times for sure. Going into this process, I know I wanted it to feel different. So we set in motion a few things, and I feel like it opened a different world for us.”

I must have missed that for a time they *were* working more separately but now work together again? Anyway, some good confessions from Matt:

For a man with a reputation for being morose, Berninger is self-aware, even self-deprecating. “To be perfectly honest, the songs are already 75% what they are before I do anything to them,” he continues. “Aaron writes most of the music and there’s a lot of sadness and desperation and melancholy in so much of what he sends me, and I’m following his lead most of the time. So I don’t take full responsibility for our band being so miserablist and dark. It’s his frickin’ minor chords!”

Berninger freely admits he had “a chip” on his shoulder from watching other people make it. He missed the Cincinnati heyday, and then he moved to New York and had to watch the Strokes, Interpol and Yeah Yeah Yeahs blow up. “I was always on the outside of a scene looking in,” he says. “Then the Brooklyn thing started and I felt like we were, like, part of that: the Brooklyn scene. You had TV on the Radio, Grizzly Bear, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. That was finally where we were, like, ‘OK, this is the wave I guess we’ll catch.’ Because we missed the other ones!”

But while many of those bands have burned bright and fizzled, the National endure. Part of this is a focused, very conscious determination. About a decade ago, when Boxer came out, Berninger decided to wear collared shirts, suits and smart boots on stage. “I realised I wanted to do this for a long time,” he says. “So I started dressing like an old man, and that means when I do become an old man, people will say, ‘Oh, you haven’t aged at all!’ I remember there was this old photo where I wore a very low V-neck T-shirt, standing in a field of wheat. It was really bad. I thought it was going to be sexy, but I can’t sell that."

i have spoken with him once, don't claim to know him, but he seems like a funny, nice, regular dude. he's definitely more imposter syndrome than tortured genius or whatever.

what, though, is "the Cincinnati heyday"? I don't remember a Cincinnati heyday.

Afghan Whigs?

Ass Ponys?

Yeah ... I guess so. Kinda forgot about that little bubble.