The National - Sleep Well Beast

The National
Sleep Well Beast
2017
Spotify

I've always considered myself a big The National fan. Their music was so honest and bare but also kept this really ethereal quality to it. I was of course really excited to see them at the Greek in Los Angeles recently but was a bit disappointed as they played mostly new songs, mostly songs from this album. I wasn't prepared for the heavy use of electronics would play and how the band have shifted from the alternative almost folksy nature of The Boxer. However Sleep Well Beast wasn't fully formed at that show, they had some ideas and maybe even a couple completed tracks but it still felt disjointed and a move in the wrong direction. It felt like they were trying to be Radiohead rather than being The National with some new instruments. You don't get that sense at all when listening to this new record, the sound is a bit different but it is still very much The National and it is still quite good. The first two tracks "Nobody Else Will be There" and "Day I Die" are fantastic and set the album up to really soar. "Walk It Back" however comes in with this slow burn and dead pan delivery that sort of shakes you out of the good vibes that had been built by the first two tracks. This album sees The National's usually spotless production and composition break down some for a more frantic sound with punctuated guitar rifts and Matt Berninger vocal warbles. The first single "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" is a great example of this but for some reason this track just feels to long and too disjointed without making any kind of point.

"Empire Line" is this deep emotional song that is so quiet, yet so powerful. When Berninger sings "You're in this too/can't you find a way?" it pulls straight at your heart. "I'll Still Destroy You" really benefits from that confined rage, they make the track reach this boiling point but instead of spilling over it just pushes hard keeping it at a roaring boil. There are a few times where the electronics fail them like on "Guilty Party" where the flourishes feel like extra baggage. For the old school The National fans songs like "Carin at the Liquor Store" will delight and despite being slightly different doesn't interrupt the flow of the album at all. "Dark Side of the Gym" is a strange title but the sentiment of just wanting to hang in love for awhile is one that is so nice. It glides you into the end of the album with fond memories of where you've been but with an eye also to the future. Sleep Well Beast may be a shift for The National but when heard in completion it is not that great and it actually works. It just goes to show you can't judge an album by one performance in Los Angles.

8.0 out of 10