THE NATIONAL

“Sleep Well Beast”

(Album Review)

Reviewer – Dan Turner

The National’s new album, Sleep Well Beast, comes out Sept. 8.

Sleep Well Beast is the seventh album from Cincinnati indie rockers turned stadium-fillers The National.  Frontman Matt Berninger has retained his aching dulcet tones and lingering sense of melancholy since his collaboration with Brent Knopf in 2015 that spawned the punk rock musical inspired EL VY.   With Sleep Well Beast, The National have gone with a less is more approach to their sound by utilising vocal samples, synthesizers & strings and whilst the guitars are still there, they are not as obvious. Guitarist & producer Aaron Dessner uses this to great effect by giving more breathing space between the notes which also offers Berninger more creative options with his vocals.  This is particularly evident on songs such as Walk It Back, Empire Line & I’ll Still Destroy You.

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The National  have been steadily filling bigger venues over the years whilst still keeping their indie/alternative rock roots in check &  they possess an arsenal of anthemic singalongs at their disposal & now have a couple more in The System Only Sleeps In Total Darkness & Day I Die. On the latter, drummer Bryan Devendorf keeps a relentless off kilter pace with the Dessner brothers’ arresting guitars whilst Berninger questions his own existence with the lyrics “I don’t need you, I don’t need you, besides I barely ever see you anymore” before he launches into the chorus “The day I die, the day I die, where will we be?”. Stadium material right there. This is in juxtaposition to the album’s slower (and somber) tracks such as the brutally poignant Carin At The Liquor Store where Berninger confesses “I was a worm, I was a creature, I get on the ground the second I’d see you, you cannot command your love, I wasn’t a catch, I wasn’t a keeper “.

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Turtleneck could well be a nod back to Nancy – the band Berninger formed with bass player Scott Devendorf whilst they were at college in the early nineties.  Whirling guitars swarm around the frontman’s deadpan ironic vocals like bees as he delivers this gem “Give the gift that fits your head, you have to get this turtleneck”.  Irony aside, Sleep Well Beast’s self titled final track perfectly sums up the new direction The National are taking. Sparse, glitchy & discordant beats are interspersed with fragments of the Dessners’ guitars whilst Berninger’s repetitive mantra of “I’ll still destroy you some day, sleep well beast” adds a hypnotic IDM touch to close out the album.

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Berninger’s voice is less frenetic on this record which could be an indication that he is becoming more cynical with age & doesn’t feel the need to exorcise his demons like he did on Abel & Mr November from Alligator back in 2005. The National are now elder statesmen & with seven albums under their belt, they have the luxury of being able to explore new musical horizons without alienating their fans.

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AMNPLIFY – DB