Let’s timewarp for a moment. It was early 2013. News of a new record by The National was popping up on blogs. I recall telling my wife, “I love the National. They are so good. But does the world really need another National record?” Obviously, I was wrong, but I was also nervous. The National had released a string of amazing records, starting with Alligator, then Boxer, then High Violet, it was the kind of consistent output you just didn’t really see that much in those days or since. I thought to myself, “Can they top themselves? Maybe they should just stop?”
Well, I’m glad they didn’t. What came out that year was Trouble Will Find Me, which somehow became my favorite record by them despite scratched copies of all their previous albums (CD’s!So quaint, so fragile.). Not only was that record memorable and exciting, their followup, Sleep Well Beast, was even more adventurous, dark, demanding, oh, and Grammy-winning.
The National are, without a doubt, the best American rock band working today.
So, what do a bunch of Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio hipsters do after yet another breakthrough record? They do exactly what all critics fear. They put out an extra long, self-indulgent album with high instrumentation and guests vocalists that sounds, sometimes anyway, like nothing else they’ve done before.
In May 2019, The National released I Am Easy To Find. It is a sprawling record of disparate voices and sounds. Their guitar-based roots smacks against electronics and prevalent strings, nothing new for these guys there, but within a few minutes of the first song, you can hear this album will be different. A new (female!) voice emerges, a counterpoint to singer Matt Berninger’s instantly recognizable gruff baritone. Not just one voice, either. The album features a small collection of women lending their unique voices, granting the album a renewed tension and vigor.
It makes perfect sense at this moment in the National’s long discography to introduce new perspectives. We are finally getting the other side of all the love songs Matt has been singing about. The fact that his wife, Carin Besser, wrote a few of the songs and sings on a couple more adds to the credibility.
I don’t have the time to get into every song (sixteen of them!) but all of them are notable. From the eye-opening smack of opener, “You Had Your Soul With You”, the gentle swaying softness of “Quiet Light” and “Oblivions”, the drama of “The Pull of You” and “Not in Kansas”, the blasting drums of longtime fan favorite “Rylan” to the heartbreaking album closer, “Light Years.”
In addition to the high concept album, I Am Easy To Find also has a thematically linked short film with the same title. The band has talked about how both the album and film were made simultaneously so they function as two sides of the same expansive project and I think that’s wonderful. The film is emotional and well made and uses not just music from the album, but outakes so it feels very much like its own thing and not just a music video.
The whole project is impressive and continues the kind of high quality consistency that is unrivaled by five scruffy dudes from New York who call themselves The National.
“I Am Easy To Find” short film directed by Mike Mills (NOT the bassist from R.E.M, I checked) –
Elad Haber 