The National

Add Date: September 12

Artist: The National

Album: Sleep Well Beast

Label: 4AD

Genre: Indie rock, post-punk revival

Comments: It has been four years since we last heard from The National. 2013's Trouble Will Find Me saw the band solidifying their ability to craft moodiness in combining Matt Berninger's distinct baritone with swells of skillful instrumental work and interplay. The band didn't light up the tracks with fire as much as they did in refining their ability to write tight compositions that were able to explore a range of feelings regarding adulthood, fatherhood and mature love in a nuanced way.

Since then, Berninger's side project, EL VY, captured a desire to explore rawer instrumentation and relatively greater ascents to joy, albeit without the same heart or craft that The National have mastered time and time again. The National's return to the scene, Sleep Well Beast, is arguably the band's biggest creative adjustment yet, more willing to unplug the guitars and demand patience from listeners than any of their previous releases have. There are moment on this record that feel like vague calls to Kid A, with synths blips "I'll Still Destroy You" and "Guilty Party" guiding the way in lieu of raw guitars. That being said, this isn't The National trying to throw away their typical tricks, rather it is an open embrace to indulge beyond it.

The band strays artfully in the progression of their emotional exploration, with the basic trembles of piano on "Born to Beg" beautifully waning with subtle explosions of drums and synths that add scores of resonance to the track without turning it into an arena anthem. Save for moments like the energetic "Day I Day" and the aggressively moody "The System Only Dream in Darkness", the guitar is a weapon as much as it is a tool, building on new layers that this band has not previously used to craft their tracks. Expertly combining a continued embrace of the dark and moody with new brushes to paint, Sleep Well Beast is an example of a band's calculated risks paying off, and it is well worth the listen to know why.

Recommended Tracks: 4, 8, 7, 5, 1

DNP: 2, 3, 6