![The National](/assets/artwork/1x1.gif)
![The National](/assets/artwork/1x1.gif)
Latest Release
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- 17 MAY 2024
- 1 Song
- Trouble Will Find Me · 2013
- evermore (deluxe version) · 2020
- First Two Pages of Frankenstein · 2023
- High Violet · 2010
- Boxer · 2007
- First Two Pages of Frankenstein · 2023
- Cherry Tree (2021 Remaster) · 2004
- I Am Easy to Find · 2019
- First Two Pages of Frankenstein · 2023
- Weird Goodbyes (feat. Bon Iver) - Single · 2022
Essential Albums
- The National perform like a band who have taken their lessons from Leonard Cohen, filtered them through the Tindersticks, stopped off to meet with Serge Gainsbourg, and landed somewhere in the Gothic soundfields of the 4AD record label. Each of their albums has received suitable praise and this album is no slacker. “Terrible Love” is the kind of late-night anthem that makes it hard to believe these guys exist in the present day and were once scheming on how to take over the world back in Ohio. The brilliant, heart-skipping pop of “Anyone’s Ghost” takes on the feeling of a Manchester rain where the icy core of isolation once explored by Joy Division is given a splash of color. “Lemonworld” dances to the end of love with a flashy nightclub backbeat that can’t hide the gray tones of the keyboards and the guitars that insist on their wallflower status. “Runaway” is arguably the sweetest tune here. Its gentle gait sounds like a come-on from a European coffee shop caught somewhere in time between the ‘60s and the new century, where music isn’t so much nostalgia but a means to create a better life for everyone involved.
- 2023
Artist Playlists
- Gimlet-eyed lyrics meet erudite arrangements in this Brooklyn band's tunes.
- Bleak, cryptic tales with an air of cinematic romanticism.
- The ghosts of post-punk past meet latter-day singer/songwriters.
- Gloomy post-punk and indie rock for 21st-century ennui.
- Listen to the hits performed on their blockbuster tour.
Compilations
More To Hear
- Aaron Dessner on “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces).”
- Matt Berninger on “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend.”
- Bryce Dessner joins to discuss “Tropic Morning News.”
- Aaron Dessner on "Weird Goodbyes (feat. Bon Iver)."
- Ahead of the Canadian festival, Matt brings the line-up to life.
- Matt speaks to The National, Ibeyi, and Confidence Man.
- Matt Berninger plays tracks from the band's Sleep Well Beast.
About The National
As Brooklyn established itself as indie rock’s focal point with the start of a new century, The National emerged there as moody underdogs transplanted from Cincinnati, Ohio. Featuring two sets of brothers and an instantly distinctive singer in Matt Berninger, the band leaned into the country-tinged melancholy of Tindersticks and Silver Jews on 2001’s self-titled debut. But they didn’t break through properly until their fourth album, 2007’s Boxer, from which Barack Obama used the song “Fake Empire” in his election campaign. By then the band were applying the sweeping and surging aspects of classical music to their Pixies-esque rock impulses, complete with grand flourishes of strings, horns and piano. With a heightened atmosphere stoked by multi-instrumentalists Bryce and Aaron Dessner and drummer Bryan Devendorf, whose quietly unconventional work oftens pops and sparks like firecrackers, Berninger holds forth with a tender, confiding baritone that radiates bruised romance. Meanwhile, his lyrics unfold like emotional puzzles: mysterious on the surface but rich with hidden meaning. After two decades together, The National stretched out anew on 2019’s I Am Easy to Find, recruiting a wide cast of guest vocalists. And Aaron Dessner became Taylor Swift’s close collaborator on her two surprise albums in 2020—which culminated in the whole band appearing on “coney island”.
- ORIGIN
- Brooklyn, NY, United States
- FORMED
- 1999
- GENRE
- Alternative