The National

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

as the free-fall advances
i'm the moron who dances

Good post! My favorite National song is still "England," which gestures toward a faraway land he may not even want to reach ("Afraid of the house, stay the night with the sinners/Afraid of the house, cause they're desperate to entertain" is a chilling refrain).

Was worried I wouldn't get into the new one, but then they slot "Eucalyptus" second and I'm all in.

Has any band name-dropped as many real bands as the National?

probably the hold steady

Along with that, Brad totally otm re: this run:

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,

Hold Steady or ... Gaslight Anthem, maybe?

They were, predictably, really good tonight. But they're always good live. Good span of stuff, maybe nothing from "I Am Easy to Find," but nice tastes of pretty much all their other stuff. First of four shows, so I assume they will shake it up here and there.

I'm liking this album, sure it's one note but comfort food. I have only heard it a couple of times so it can go either way.

the more you listen the less it's one note. it's sneaky. it's good. half of it is great. the hooks take their time getting under your skin, but once they're in they're in.

in retrospect, high violet suddenly seems frantic and overstuffed.