Sleep Well Beast
Nearly 20 years into the band\'s career, The National have reached a status attained only by the likes of Radiohead: a progressive, uncompromising band with genuinely broad appeal. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner in his upstate New York studio (with co-production from guitarist Bryce Dessner and singer Matt Berninger), *Sleep Well Beast* captures the band at their moody, majestic best, from the propulsive “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” to “Guilty Party,” where Berninger’s portraits of failing marriage come to a sad, gorgeous, and surprisingly subtle head.
Sleep Well Beast was produced by member Aaron Dessner with co-production by Bryce Dessner and Matt Berninger. The album was mixed by Peter Katis and recorded at Aaron Dessner’s Hudson Valley, New York studio, Long Pond, with additional sessions having taken place in Berlin, Paris and Los Angeles.
The band’s seventh album adds more chaos to their stately drama. It is full of abandon and quiet contemplation as Matt Berninger sings not about how to enjoy life, but how to simply endure it.
Albums by The National are like your friendly neighborhood lush: In just an hour or so, they’re able to drink you under the table, say something profound enough to make the whole bar weep, then stumble out into the pre-dawn, proud and ashamed in equal measure. They also tend to be sneaky, both lyrically and…
Seven albums in, The National have become our premier doomsayers with latest offering 'Sleep Well Beast'. This is one for the bunker.
Yet never before has it been foregrounded quite so brazenly as it is here; although Sleep Well Beast is hardly The Nationals most physical, visceral record indeed, it may perhaps be their most restrained in such respects much of this album can be read as an exercise in confronting personal and societal darknesses and transposing them into work which, if not exactly effervescent with hope, at least manages to transcend mere navel-gazing and push off into clearer, more open waters.
Throughout their sixteen years making music, The National have been one of the most rewarding bands to follow.
The National have steadily risen to be the essential guitar band of the 21st century, special like R E M, smart like Radiohead, pre-eminent chroniclers of the unmagnificent lives of adults.
Putting an open marriage counselling session to tape and adding new textures to their now-signature sound, The National are as vital as ever.
Amid a stinging account of a messy divorce, The National continue to penetrate your thoughts better than any shrink
The National never seem in a hurry to reach their destination, but there's a sense of quiet urgency on Sleep Well Beast, their seventh album.
The National take a more electronic approach with their seventh album, Sleep Well Beast.
That it's difficult for the National not to sound like the National is both a blessing and a curse. There is, after all, an inherent par...
The National return for their seventh album with something pensive and beautiful that refuses to bite its tongue, going to dark places to find a light.
Liking The National has somehow become a parody of itself—a bunch of white dudes that make sad music about loneliness and growing up somehow seems so... predictable.
Matt Berninger, lead singer and songwriter of indie-rock titans The National, is something of a contradiction. He’s made a career of channelling
(4AD) <br />The acclaimed US band’s seventh album ramps up the complexity – and the self-flagellation
The thing with The National is that if you sit with one of their albums for long enough, it'll always reel you in. 'Sleep Well Beast' is no different.
The National continues to display highly polished craftsmanship of simmering balladry on Sleep Well Beast.
Review of 'Sleep Well Beast' by The National: 'Sleep Well Beast' finds The National misfiring on some great songs in our review.
Less fury at the dying of the light and more eye-rolling at a life partner, as the National tackle middle age with a novelist’s sense of atmosphere<br>
The National - Sleep Well Beast review: The National return with a sprawling and adventurous new album that holds up to their legendary career.