The National - First Two Pages... & Laugh Track Album • Page 37

if I read this critique about a band I'd never heard I'd be diving in to listen expecting to disagree it's a problem, but I feel like this is right on the mark. I actually kind of laughed at the post earlier this morning about them and coldplay being different bands, because while definitely true they're wildly different overall, I feel like the first four coldplay albums would have been a great touring partner for this incarnation of the national's sound lol

 

For sure, and I can't help but kind of compare these songs with the new Daughter songs (I know they're obviously different bands, and TN have been around way longer, but there's some parallels- both of them are on 4AD, I saw Daughter open for the National in 2014, etc.) and I absolutely adore the two new Daughter songs and how they sound; they sounds like a band that has punch to the instrumentation while still managing to be catchy, emotional, etc. and it just kind of bums me out when I compare them to these two National ones (which, again, I really do generally enjoy).

 

It does bear mentioning that Daughter is releasing their third album and The National is releasing their ninth. The National have released significantly more material than Daughter has and probably ever will

 

If i had to critique the band itself: There’s just no real urgency to how these songs sound. They sound sleepy, content to write pretty songs about being 50. A decade ago, Don’t Swallow the Cap and Sea of Love at least sounded urgent. Any anger and ugliness and frustration feels wiped from their sound as of IAETF (Pull of You notwithstanding), and that was always the most compelling part of the band to me.

 

This is how I felt about much of their last album. Just felt like a snooze

 

I completely get this. While I really like this new song, in my mind I was thinking the thing I could do without is what I inarticulately referred to as “studio fuckery”.

 

I'm starting to think they could really use an outside producer again. You really summed up how I'm feeling about these songs. I'm still going to enjoy them, they're nice songs, but this lacks the urgency they used to have.

The way they could capture the anxiety and stress of those periods of their lives in music, really from Alligator up to SWB and a few of the songs on IAETF, was what made them so unique. While Matt was occasionally verbose, they were also songs and lyrics you could easily see yourself experiencing or have experienced. Now it's lacking a bit of that connection.

 

I know that's why I said I realize TN have been around way longer, its just impossible for me to not compare them right now both being on 4AD and releasing a new album in the same exact month. It's just such a stark difference with how the production sounds between the two bands. I still love the National and I enjoy the two new songs enough, I think my qualms are just like specifically with how they both sound if that makes sense. I wonder how involved Peter Katis is with this album

 

Ha! I just wrote in another response "I wonder how involved Peter Katis is". The producer thing is interesting bc Aaron produced "Wilder Mind" by Mumford and Sons and I know a lot of people hated it, but that's my favorite Mumford album in large part because of how it sounds. The drums and guitars sound very alive to me and that's like the opposite of what he seems to be doing these days

 

Love the album but that one’s never made sense to me

 

I, like the majority of this thread I'm assuming, got into The National w/Boxer. When I went backwards, I found that I enjoyed Alligator and the Cherry Tree EP but found the first two albums to be somewhat of rough drafts. In terms of their 2010's output, I think they've been amazingly consistent and I'm very much looking forward to this.

 

“So disappointing that The National is just making it by the numbers (they’re not), oh well I guess I’ll get hyped for the next Blink-182 album.”

-Chorus.fm

 

^ To be fair, none of these National singles sound like they were explicitly written to score the menu screen for a 2000s sports video game. Big missed opportunity.

 

Wilder Mind is the only Mumford album I enjoy so I know where you’re coming from.

I don’t think Katis was involved at all in this album.

 

Don’t like blink-182 or pop punk, but i did enjoy 00s sports video games more than i currently enjoy the segues between NPR segments or whatever this is for.

 

That special tingle you get when you open a fresh spring training as JET’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl blasts over the simulated ballpark PA system.

 

As an aside, i saw the National in Cincinnati a few days before the 2016 election night because they were doing a free show at a Clinton rally and my friend jokingly said “if the National doesn’t play ‘Driver, Surprise Me’ Hilary is going to lose” and they didnt. The rest, as they say, is history. Just something to think about.

 

And here I've been blaming myself for the Clinton loss because I almost went to that Cincy show, but had to back out at the last minute. So thankful to hear it's either your friend's or the National's fault.

 

??? The National "by the numbers" songs are really good, this issue with the new ones is that they're sounding less and less like an actual band. Both this one and Weird Goodbyes are good songs at their core with great very vivid lyrics but sort of sound like that BRM song "Renegade" but with Matt doing vocals instead of Taylor Swift.

 

The National, not an actual band anymore because of two songs that feature electronic elements

 

That snarky remark would work in 2017 now wouldn't it?

 

I'm just failing to see how they sound "less and less like an actual band" based on...

*checks notes*

two songs

 

Hey I'd love for the rest of the songs on the album to sound different and for what it's worth I think tropic morning news largely slaps but there's still like an air of overproduction or something to it idk. We shall see

 

Yeah maybe just take a lap and wait for the album to drop. I'm sure there will be at least one song where you can hear Bryan playing drums and then we can all collectively breathe a sigh of relief.