The National's latest album captures themes including the political climate and a relationship about to collapse.
The National/ Sleep Well Beast
Despite having emerged onto the bustling indie-rock scene in the early 2000s, The National couldn't be more different than most of their peers. While others were busy crafting the genre-defining jangly guitar sound, the Brooklyn-via-Cincinnati band chose to churn out morose songs that deal with existential crises and the ever-encroaching ennui. Somewhere along the line, their brand of bleak, misery-stricken sonic aesthetics struck an emotional chord with the mainstream. The next thing you know, Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Bryan Devendorf and Scott Devendorf were playing arena shows and headlining music festivals around the world.
Since their last studio record, 2013's Trouble Will Find Me, the band members have gone on to pursue their own side projects -- Berninger teaming up with Menomena's Brent Knopf for EL VY, the Devendorf brothers with Beirut's Ben Lanz for LNZNDRF, and the Dessner brothers co-founding and curating their own music festivals. It wasn't until early last year that the quartet reunited to work on what would become their latest offering, Sleep Well Beast.
Lead single The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness carries with it the political undertones the band is known for dispensing throughout their career. According to frontman Matt Berninger, the track is "an abstract portrait of a weird time we're in". This, of course, refers to the Trump presidency. "The system only dreams in total darkness/ Why are you hiding from me?/ We're in a different kind of thing now/ All night you're talking to God," he croons, his words offcut by Aaron Dessner's scuzzy guitar riffs. "I cannot explain it/ Any other, any other way."
The political sentiment echoes on Walk It Back and Turtleneck. The former includes a sample of pitched-down voices reading a quote by Karl Rove, a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff during the George W Bush administration, whereas the latter is a dig towards Mr Trump ("Another man in shitty suits everybody's cheering for/ This must be the genius we've been waiting years for/ Oh no, this is so embarrassing").
Blending rigid electronic beats with pillowy piano chords, Guilty Party is a brutally honest account of a relationship coming apart and how one is accepting it all with equanimity. "I say your name/ I say I'm sorry/I know it's not working/ I'm no holiday," he sings in his trademark world-weary baritone. "It's nobody's fault/ No guilty party/ We just got nothing/ Nothing left to say." Elsewhere, there's a little bit of everything for everyone -- from the surging energy of Day I Die to the understated piano melodies of Carin at the Liquor Store. And it's these varied textures and dynamics which make Sleep Well Beast the band's lushest and most eloquent work.
THE PLAYLIST
Mattnimare/ Kwam Rak (Venus)
On their latest offering Kwam Rak (Venus), Thai indie-rock quartet Mattnimare are doing what they do best: crafting an evocative pop-rock ballad designed to tug at your heartstrings. Here, vocalist Pree Asvaraksha questions the notion of kwam rak (love), lamenting "The more I'm invested in it/ The more tears I'm shedding." Nothing to write home about, really (plus we think the song ran two minutes too long).
Taylor Swift/ …Ready For It?
T-Swizzle returned, all guns blazing, earlier this month with lead single Look What You Made Me Do. After endless think pieces trying to decode the symbolism of its accompanying video, she's now unveiling its follow-up, …Ready For It? Taken from her upcoming new album, Reputation, the Max Martin-produced track is sonically reminiscent of Kanye West's I Am God. "Knew he was a killer/ First time that I saw him/ Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted," she rattles off the syllables over burbling synths as if she was trying channel her inner Rihanna. Then the bridge hits and we get that ubiquitous The Chainsmokers-esque melody. It's all a bit confusing to be honest.
Sales/ Talk A Lot
Floridian duo Sales, aka Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih, serve up a slice of infectious indie lo-fi goodness in the form of Talk A Lot. Lyrically, the pair tell a mundane story of going to a supermarket with a bunch of chatty friends ("Your friends they seem to talk a lot/ You know I'm not that type/ Just pull up in your shopping cart/ Just throw it all in there, it's fine"). Musically, though, there's a winsome quality embedded in its flowing, buoyant groove that simply begs for a replay.
Ibeyi (feat. Kamasi Washington)/ Deathless
French-Cuban twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz have been making intriguing music under Ibeyi since 2015. Following their self-titled debut, the duo is back with a new cut Deathless. Featuring saxophonist Kamasi Washington, the song is based on an actual incident when Lisa-Kaindé was wrongfully arrested for dealing drugs. "He said/ Do you smoke?/ What's your name?/ Do you know why I'm here?/ She was/ Innocent/ Sweet sixteen/ Frozen with fear," the opening verse starts off like a riveting short story. Refusing to be grinded down, the pair cry in defiance "Whatever happens/ We are deathless!", making it one of the most empowering choruses we've heard this year.
Charlotte Gainsbourg/ Rest
Seasoned actress/singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg is back with the promise of her first new solo LP, Rest, since 2011's Stage Whisper. Produced and co-written by one half of Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the lead single/title track finds her intoning in French over mesmerising, lullaby-like synth loop. Slated for a release in November, Rest marks Gainsbourg's first record in six years (as well as her fourth solo LP), and will feature collaborations with an eclectic array of artists from SebastiAn and Paul McCartney to Connan Mockasin and Owen Pallett.
