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

Oh, for sure. Part of me was wondering if whatever mechanism it is that attracts a certain subset of listeners to this musical experience might be termed as a kind of "classicism", that is, the same attraction that somebody might have toward abstract painting and/or symphony concerts

There are many different ways of approaching abstract painting and concerts of orchestral music, and not all of them involve a yearning for classicism. That said, if 'classicism' is shorthand for 'resting on one's laurels', I do agree that The National's music has tended towards self-canonization in recent years, which is why I'm indifferent to most of their output post-Boxer.

I tried to command-f the word "featureless" and my computer exploded.

Anyway, I have also felt that their compositions had kind of... lost some texture or dynamics on most of the albums I've heard following Boxer. For instance, as a guitar player that focuses on it I noticed that there was more finger picking among tracks on Alligator and by High Violet there was more soft strumming of basic chords. That's a specific example, but the sonic textures overall seemed less distinct and the newer songs themselves are harder to differentiate for me. I haven't really listened to the most recent album, though!

it didn't require thought or processing

this is not true in my experience of listening to the national. "sea of love" is a weird, lopsided-sounding song, i enjoy thinking about how it works

this thread got weird imo

like their thing may or may not be your thing but to suggest that bc it's not your thing it's also uninteresting musically in some sort of absolute way... i mean jam bands bore me to tears but i don't feel a need to make that their fault.

You've never seen someone present personal musical preferences as objective truth before?

fwfw Some piece I read said that starting with the last couple albums the band no longer records together in a dedicated home studio. They're too far flung around the world so contribute kind of digital-era piecemeal. Also fwiw, they all live in super-hip/cool places except the MVP drummer, who still lives in Cincinnati, so that's pretty cool. Might explain a sonic shift, whatever the intent.

i mean they write songs piecemeal but i'm pretty sure they still record together

the whole narrative around the last album that they all went to one of the guys' home recording studio and lived there for weeks and spent time together and played in the pool with their kids, etc., etc.

I haven't seen the National in several years but last time I saw them they were anything but featureless. drummer's incredible, the twins are inventive guitar players, together they create a lot of dynamic and interesting and moving music, and Berninger's intensity/shtick/whatever, for me, is compelling. all imo, of course.

have the records become kind of featureless? that i could buy.

also, i agree with this:

I've definitely become highly attuned to just how pro every band seems to be these days

also if it was important to me to know what Michael Stipe is talking about in Harborcoat i wouldn't like any pop or rock music, who gives a shit it sounds good

I have to use the word "featureless" because it's the only word that applies! Boring sounds pejorative (and it isn't, boring music can be great etc. etc.), low-content can be great too (and this isn't low-content, it's more like... well, yeah.)

And they are absolutely the finest imaginable musicians, the drummer is truly incredible.

i mean jam bands bore me to tears but i don't feel a need to make that their fault.

I'm not making anything anybody's fault, sheesh, it's the worst thing in the world that we can't speak critically about "the work" and "the listening process" without it turning into a discussion about blame. There's a lot a lot of music out there I have no interest in, but I understand the synapse between what it is and why people listen to it. I am having trouble parsing that out with The National. I don't even consider myself a non-fan really, I have affection for stuff they've done, I'm just trying to puzzle things out is all, and why I felt so alienated last night.

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.