Album Review: The National Provides Subtlety And Self-Awareness On ‘Trouble Will Find Me’

By: Shannon Reid (@allisplural) –

Brooklyn-based band and indie royalty, The National, is back with more somber vocals and less of an upbeat mainstream sound (compared to 2010’s High Violet) that will win the hearts of the majority. High Violet was responsible for their recent rapid elevating success and growing popularity, putting them on global album charts; but it will be their latest album that will project their Midas touch around the world.

Trouble Will Find Me is the group’s fifth studio album and second album released on 4AD.  Since 2001, The National has released new albums consecutively every two years; this album drops on a third year gap since they released High Violet in 2010. Like Versailles’ Hallway of Mirrors, the band’s rise continues to travel down distant corridors beaming golden light, while composing their intimate reflections.

This album blazes its own path while simultaneously extinguishing comparisons.

Guitarists and twin brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner write with Lead singer Matt Berninger, their synergy can break through walls – both literal and metaphorical.  You can feel Beringer’s voice reverberating through the speakers, a voice most notable for living between bass and tenor.  The Dessner brother’s innate connection and guitar-bending talents pull mood-provoking triggers while drum and bass siblings Scott and Brian Devondorf anchor the album in a clean refined way. Together they deliver a message and a sound that is modern while it cuts to the core of personal struggles, vulnerability and self-destructive demons. It’s a message of letting go, sometimes freeing yourself from restraints, other times retrieving consequences. The sound can settle personal disruption for the listener that relates – and who wouldn’t.

Every track on Trouble Will Find Me is vital. “Don’t Swallow The Cap” is held together by the run-on delivered vocals of Berninger while the drumbeat refuses to be ignored; it’s quick and steady, sometimes delivering quick snare-shots. “Demons” is slower, darker. If there were a perfect example of why The National has been compared to Leonard Cohen, this would be it. It’s power lies in Berninger’s ability to sing while sounding like he’s deeply confiding in the listener with a dark chant, not to mention it’s content; the background sounds float around his vocals, building soundscapes for his refuge.  “I Need My Girl” is remarkable and lovely; maybe it’s the drum machines programmed by Sufjan Stevens or the fact that the track was originally played in 2011 when The National made a guest appearance on Q when they performed the song publicly for the first time and it is still thriving with insistence.  The difference between their performance in 2011 and the performance on their Trouble Will Find Me is minute.  Most notably they bridled the beat into a much slower, building tempo; unlike the first steady straightforward four-beat snare scratch heard in 2011. Berninger’s vocals are bang on, genuine quality of feeling still intact, studio treated but still alive with a genuine breath.

Pulling the trump card, The National recruited a few notable collaborators for this album including Annie Clark (St Vincent) Sharon Van Etten, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Doveman and Nona Marie Invie (Dark Dark Dark). The sounds of Clark’s elegant voice and Van Etten’s arresting rasp have been laid on tracks, “Don’t Swallow The Cap,” “This Is The Last Time,” “Hard To Find” and “Humiliation.”

Names aside, this collaboration speaks volumes for the band in regards to loyalty and affection towards their creative relationships with other artists. These are not just curated heartstrings, played and then cut free, they have instead formed deep creative relationships on other levels. Take Aaron Dessner’s production credits for example, Dessner produced Doveman’s 2009 album, The Conformist, as well as Van Etten’s latest album, Tramp. The list goes on…

For the record, there’s nothing wrong with attaining mainstream success, however, there is something very right about not making music to appease popular opinion. The National is the author of our inner lives who aim to exceed it.

Essential Tracks: “Demons”, “Don’t Swallow The Cap”, and “I Need My Girl”.