The National - First Two Pages... & Laugh Track Album • Page 80

I am declaring a tie between Frankenstein and Laugh Track.

Tiebreaker is listening to both 50 more times.

 

I heard that, if you Praise Laugh Track by dissing FTPOF, you unlock the most powerful orgasm of your life.

 

Verse four of Hornet

 

Tour Manager is so nice

 

Laugh Track is a perfect album for these fall mornings. All week I've had the windows open in the office, sipping on coffee while playing this and it’s been a delightful way to wake up and start the day.

 

Turn Off The House is my fucking anthem right now. As I figure out how to navigate a transition while also dealing with my mom going through a new round of cancer treatments, it sums up all the ways I’m feeling.

 

tour manager really hit just now. i like the xylophone

 

Everyone cross your fingers for me that I finally get to hear Mistaken For Strangers (my intro to the band and arguably my favourite NTL song) in Glasgow on Sunday, fourth time lucky right?

 

Good luck! I have similar feelings about the song (Slow Show probably ever so slightly edges it out for me as my all time fav. but it's top 3 for sure) and I was lucky enough to see them play it this year in Chicago (and at the first Homecoming festival). Fingers crossed.

 

Finally listened to this. Pretty low on my National rankings after a listen but about a thousand times better than Frankenstein. Tour Manager is really nice, though I am exhausted by the big red machine melodic high bass riffs they cannot stop themselves from including on all Dessner projects.

Love the main Smoke Detector riff - first thing they’ve done on these two albums that sounds like a new idea. Not sure the autotune part is good or that the song as a whole warrants a near 8 minute runtime, but what a breath of fresh air.

 

Just curious what’s a melodic high bass riff? Or an example of it on the album? I feel like you’re right but I want to hear it for myself (I’m not a musician)

 

personally just happy to hear the Dessners riff again, been a minute

 

funnily enough I think LT coming out finally opened Frankenstein up for me. I've enjoyed it from the start but hearing the contrast between this very insular, damaged album with how warm and textured LT is just reinforces how deliberate this all was. love when a band has such clear vision for their work

(probably projecting a bit with these descriptions, it's only because Frankenstein came out when I was stuck at my folks' with no job, and LT is soundtracking a time where I'm in the city with a good job and a much better friend network. it's like they timed these releases for me lol)

 

clearest example I can think of is peace on folklore - comes in at about 9 seconds. I feel like they’ve really leaned on that on two Taylor albums, two National albums, and two big red machine albums now.

don’t get me wrong, the Dessners are awesome and all this shit sounds cool. But where they initially felt inventive it now feels like they have a go-to bag of tricks and if I catch new National music when only marginally in the mood all those little hallmarks start to feel tropey and overdone

 

But what about an example on this album?

 

Oh my god I've just seen what should have been my setlist for this tour (Dublin was the original plan) and fuuuuuucking hell

 

When I posted that, I was referring to Tour Manager - that little ascending riff that repeats throughout (comes in for the first time at 0:17/18). Listening again I'm not convinced it's bass here so I might be wrong, but it does have the same feel to me as the Taylor example.

I know it probably sounds like I'm holding the band to an unfair standard, and I probably am - I just can't help but feeling Dessner'd out in a way that most bands' production flourishes don't call attention to in the same way theirs do.

If this album came out 4 years ago, I'd probably love it. Wouldn't say that about Frank, the songs are for sure better here to me.

 

To be fair, this is kind of a pretty common arc for any artist with a distinctive style and a long career, imo.

I get why that wouldn’t be appealing after a while for some people. But for me, personally, as a somewhat lapsed fan for a minute, I like that this year’s albums feel like a veteran band in the pocket just doing strong, confident work.

 

Crumble is so good

 

I keep teasing my wife that it's a song about craving Crumbl cookies.

 

Dude. Crumbl cookies have overtaken my house. My wife and daughter are rolling through that place every week.

 

Too big

 

I’m gonna crumbl

 

is it not?

 

There’s some very good copy cat recipes here: Crumbl Cookie Copycat Recipes - Cooking With Karli

Like, insanely close. Have tested quite a few of them.