The point at which The National began to outgrow their cult status to become one of the world’s finest bands, ‘High Violet’ turns 10 years old.
Adopting a rotating cast of female co-vocalists and embracing more influences than ever before, ‘I Am Easy To Find’ represents the most ambitious album by The National yet.
Imagine a festival on an idyllic beach, where it doesn’t rain, headlined by the best musicians from a plethora of genres at the top of their game… You just imagined Primavera Sound 2018, the biggest and best indie festival in Europe.
Sleep Well Beast represents a change in the sound of the band, but, fundamentally, is a record which makes sense in their discography, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t one of the most well-crafted and interesting listens of 2017.
by Matthew Langham Respectively of The National and Menomena / Ramona Falls, Matt Berninger and Brent Knopf make up EL VY, a pressure-free side project which features the baritone vocals of Berninger, but combined with a more upbeat pop sound which is a step away from his duties as vocalist of the celebrated indie masters. However, it’s Knopf’s multi-instrumentalist abilities which truly come to the forefront throughout the album.
To adapt that famous misquotation attributed to Mark Twain, reports of the album’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Ever since the turn of the millennium, conventional wisdom has had it that the traditional long-player is on its way out, an arcane format out of time with the digital world that will cede inexorably to a future of singles and playlists. But while many artists have experimented with what an album
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