The National

looking forward to future dad rock staple, New Order T-Shirt

anyway, they are playing bottlerock in napa in May so I assume they have a new album on the way and that tracklist looks likely. glad to see Phoebe all over it.

glad that "weird goodbyes" apparently isn't on it because it wasn't very good

Phoebe seems to be everywhere.

There might still be other songs on the album (even "Weird Goodbyes"?). Somebody pointed out, given the way this leaked, that the 11 track limit might match the number of tracks on the B&S album this appeared under by mistake, not the full number on The National album.

1 Once Upon A Poolside (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
2 Eucalyptus
3 New Order T-Shirt

wtf

“once upon a poolside” has got to be the most national song title of all time

If you'd said "By the Poolside I Sat and Wept," maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdU0qwZKLfU

leaked tracklist was accurate. album is 47 minutes long (thank god) (even though i liked the last one's sprawl)

not as good as their past two lead singles but it's decent

why do you feat. Phoebe Bridgers but With Taylor Swift?

Maybe she co-wrote the song with them, and the others are just featured on songs that the band wrote?

yeah possible

https://shop.americanmary.com/products/new-order-t-shirt

this is so stupid i have to get it

that’s great, definitely buying for my partner

love the t-shirt

really wish I loved the song but it's so nothingy

can't hate, it's just got no melody, nothing to latch onto

Album out Friday. NME (lol) has said it's their best in a decade and given it five stars.

Have really liked the two more recent songs they've released from it though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSywJt3VlUM

Of all the bands I'd totally expect to just keep putting out good albums it's this one.

A nice note is that Matt sliding the SM7 down on the mic stand at the end of the video is just faintly, barely audible enough to confirm that the video you're watching is a factual document of the final vocal performance

Their last one was the best to my ears; having female harmonists and co-vocalists leavened the preppy male angst.

this is probably their most mellow, middle-of-the-road, unexciting album yet

which is a shame after the last two were a little more interesting and had some of their strongest material (there's definitely a case for i am easy to find as their best)

Yeah. Shame that all the guest vocalists are strictly on backing duties, especially after the last album. At least Taylor gets a few lines to sing on her own I suppose unlike Phoebe.

taylor's appearance is prominent enough but it's weird that the others get a feature credit for some backing vocals, especially compared to the last album where more prominent guest vocalists didn't

ppl describing the new national album as “mor” gets me excited about it, actually

it just feels like they're spinning their wheels here, there's nothing that comes close to "you had your soul with you" or "the system only dreams in total darkness" or anything

The System Dreams in MOR

Not every fan of the national is a divorced guy who owns an npr t shirt but every divorced guy who owns an npr t shirt is a fan of the national

— eve6 (@Eve6) April 28, 2023

I am so dead-center in the National’s supposed demographic (but married and no NPR t-shirt but I listen the shit out of NPR) but I just can’t get with the National. A little too close to home maybe.

Tuned out for no partic reason after Boxer, which I loved. Thinking of dipping back in but no sure where to start

trouble will find me!

yeah that's the only really good post boxer album for me

go backwards imo, alligator as good as boxer, sometimes better

two first have some jams

I read the New Yorker profile, then I read a Washington Post profile, and clearly they are in the promo zone, because the overlap was remarkable.

I tried a pink rabbit thanks to The National.

yeah that's the only really good post boxer album for me

― corrs unplugged, sobota, 29 kwietnia 2023 16:33 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

go backwards imo, alligator as good as boxer, sometimes better

two first have some jams

― corrs unplugged, sobota, 29 kwietnia 2023 16:34 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think the run from Alligator to High Violet is pretty stellar. Trouble Will Find Me is good, too, but could maybe use a trim?

I thought the last one, I Am Easy To Find was excellent.

As Alfred mentions, the guest vocalists give a fresh spin to their sound.

sleep well beast also has a crackling second side. only real dud on that album is “turtleneck” which should've been relegated to a lame resistance comp called rock against trump

Every "Automatic for the People" has its "Ignoreland."

guys this is a good record

i bet! the subtler they are the better. will be listening finally tomorrow

the subleties being less interesting this time than the last two albums are a big part of the problem too

listen… shhh

I mean I guess if you're still holding a torch for Alligator then Alligator will still be your favorite The National record *shrug*

this one's got the usual hooks that grow into earworms and sneaky compositions and wryly observed miserablisms and bryan devendorf and I'm not inclined to complain about any of that.

early standouts: once upon a poolside, tropic morning news, your mind is not your friend.

trouble will find me!

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Saturday, April 29, 2023

honestly the best The National record top to bottom. iykyk.

surprised so many people liked I am Easy to Find so much; I like it, but it didn't stick with me at all. I prefer this one by some measure.

"eucalyptus" is like walking outside and noticing the temperature is nice and there's a cool breeze and then seeing black clouds hovering on the horizon, v powerful song

what about the cowboy junkies
what about the afghan whigs

new album inspired a discog run and it's making me think about how much i ended up loving this band despite being resistant at every step of the way bc they so live up to their (reductive, revealed as grossly inaccurate as soon as you sink below the surface) reputation of making MOR indie rock for the recently or about-to-be divorced. i think ultimately what ensnared me were berninger and bessin's lyrics, which, in describing lives whose spasms of decadence and opulence inadequately disguise a void within, a routine sameness in their days they long to break out of and the process of breaking out leads them into quotidian surrealities, seemed to picking up right where john cheever left off. the opening lines of "fake empire" (stay out super late tonight / baking apples, making pie / put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us") were also immediate echoes of my first few weeks in new york, discovering that since i didn't have to drive anywhere i would spend some nights walking home in such a state of semidrunk that every block felt like waltzing across a crooked tightrope.

once the lyrics got to me, i was able to scale back from the grain of the words to the more nimbusy qualities of the music, the cloud that tightens around your head during a hangover and makes every event of your day slip slightly into unreality. it's a universe made of gestures and flourishes and subtleties, a shadowed theater where these pathetic characters drink, talk about their favorite records, fail to say what they mean to each other and only realize it later when it's too late and even that realization falls away into an increasingly unfocused landscape of emotional events. i feel like the only songs where i notice they're progressing through chords are the piano-based ones, otherwise i feel like their songs are sinuous tours through melody and counterpoint and syncopation (especially whenever devendorf, one of the greatest drummers alive, is driving the song as if he's the real lead guitarist).

anyway i'm listening to trouble will find me right now and it's still clearly their masterwork, everything i mentioned in the previous two paragraphs is present there in its most refined form. also "don't swallow the cap" is the only national song i've ever seen in a karaoke book and so it's the only one i've sung, surprisingly(?) a lot of fun

I'm not listening to over 99.99% of music right now.

I like both of these two national albums fine, but they are a little dull compared to Boxer, Alligator, and High Violet. But there's nothing bad on them at all, definitely. That's def where Wilco landed to me sometime around Ghost...I listen to the records, they're good, they don't stick with me, whether that's the fault of the album or just my jaded ears, I don't know. At least they aren't making albums I think suck.

and like, I'm still going to go see the National live on this tour, even though they are playing a place I hate. Because they are phenomenal live, even when they play things I don't love.

yo la tengo and wilco are definitely much more interesting bands with much higher highs and yo la tengo put out one of their very best albums just this year

the national are kinda frustrating because they seem capable of making something really compelling and great but never quite get there beyond the occasional track here and there. very good at being fine, decent enough, etc. though

yeah I was going to say I was actually surprised by that YLT album, it kind of somehow regained all that magic that I'd loved and felt kind of disappeared with Summer Sun. I also think the National might still again make another album as strong as High Violet. But they also might turn into U2.

Just heard the track they did with Taylor Swift ("Alcott"), I kinda dug it.

still can't say I love the last two albums (or even three or four) as much as anything prior but I saw them last night in SF and they remain one of my favorite live acts. 29 song set, even things I didn't love or wasn't super familiar with were great.