The National, Laugh Track - The National put out two full length albums in 2023 and this one (released only a few months after First Two Pages Of Frankenstein and only announced a few days before its release) is definitely the better of the two, though as I said in my previous post I’m “Nationaled out.” At least it goes out (and possibly the band goes out too–there’ve been breakup rumors for awhile now, partially due to one of the Dessner brothers becoming a Taylor Swift collaborator) with a bang–“Smoke Detector,” easily the best song on either of the two 2023 albums. It’s eight minutes long but I could have listened to it for twice that, a great energetic tune full of speed and wonderful Bryan Devendorf drumming like most classic National songs–and yeah, Bryan Is Back, they barely used him on First Two Pages, and that’s a sin. Elsewhere, you have “Alphabet City,” “Deep End,” “Dreaming” and the end of “Space Invader” to pad things out with a few nicer numbers, but this still isn’t a great album. This is because of a lot of (yet again) boring ballads that can’t come up with enough production trickery to hide their boring three/four-chord melodies (though I kind of liked “Hornets,” which is symptomatic of exactly this.) They’re still getting good reviews, but I’m not sure what good reviews mean in 2024–hey, just because I read all these reviews on all these little failing websites (most of which now need paywalls or snarl at me to turn off my ad blocker) doesn’t mean the rest of the public does!

The National’s discography, which I listened to in its entirety in 2024 with the exception of High Violet breaks down as follows, using George scores:

1)High Violet (2010) (12.5 or maybe 13)
2)Boxer (2007) (11)
3)Trouble Will Find Me (2013) (11)
4)Alligator (2005) (10)
5)Sleep Well Beast (2017) (10)
6)Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (2003) (9)
7)Laugh Track (2023) (9)
8)The National (2001) (8 or 9)
9)I Am Easy To Find (2019) (8 or 9)
10)First Two Pages Of Frankenstein (2023) (7 or 8)

So yeah…they’re like a less-consistent Wilco. Bear in mind that a good comparison between the two bands is that critics have always singled out Matt Berninger and his love/relationship-based lyrics as one of the big selling points of the band, considering him sort of a dad-rock bard, just like Jeff Tweedy is always going on about his relationship problems. Problem is, I don’t listen to rock bands for the lyrics for the most part, music ALWAYS comes first, and I haven’t actually really been paying attention to Tweedy all these years, though I’m sure he’s good at what he does. Ditto for Matt Berninger. I don’t have any problems with his voice, but he’s not saving all these ballads.

If The National keep coming up with mediocre albums full of ballads and lacking in energy/Bryan Devendorf, I suggest they really do break up. A shame, but I don’t want to see them get so boring.

Oh, and for the fuck of it, here’s a list of their best songs.

1)”Afraid Of Everyone”
2)”Sea Of Love” (my “song of the year” for 2024–might make this #1)
3)”Graceless”
4)”Runaway” (by far their best ballad)
5)”Mistaken For Strangers”
6)”Don’t Swallow The Cap”
7)”Terrible Love”
8)”Bloodbuzz, Ohio”
9)”The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”
10)”Smoke Detector”