Photo of The National by Josh Goleman
In 2021, National frontman Matt Berninger suffered an acute bout of depression, which led to a year-long spell where he was unable to come up with new melodies or lyrics. It worsened an already frayed band dynamic. He, and the rest of the group, wondered if the band had reached the end of its nearly 25-year line. Instead of worrying about a lack of progress on new music, the band instead decided to focus on renewing their friendships and working relationship. It was an act of courtesy and generosity, to paraphrase guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner. The result is First Two Pages of Frankenstein, a record that feels like finally managing to pry open a jammed shut door, or coming out of the essence-robbing throes of a depressive episode.
This sense of renewed connection is best heard in the slowly percolating “New Order T-Shirt.” Over burbling synths and circular guitar riffs, Berninger wraps his wistfully tender baritone around highly specific memories of a lost friend or lover. In it, he accurately depicts how loss often feels like carrying around a pile of loose Polaroids, chemical-etched reminders of someone who left us with so much, but that we can never speak to again. It’s also found in album highlight “Eucalyptus,” a track that serves as a way to fend off the worst-case scenario by confronting the idea head on. In this case, disintegration—perhaps his marriage, or maybe the band. The song builds to cathartic chorus-vocal shouts of “you should take it, cause I’m not gonna take it. You should take it, if I miss it, I’ll visit. It’d be so alone without you there. It wouldn’t be fair.”
Frankenstein is not only the band’s most graceful record to date, it’s also their most effortless sounding. “Tropic Morning News,” a phrase Berninger’s wife and frequent lyrical collaborator Carin Besser invented to describe a sense of doom, is filled with propulsive percussion, a juicy bassline, and playfully squonky guitar figures that underscore a freedom of emotion—as Berninger sings, “there’s nothing stopping me now from saying all the painful parts out loud.” “Grease in Your Hair” swells to a euphoric release that feels like pure relief, heralding a state of being “in the middle of some kind of cosmic rearrangement.” The entire band sounds rejuvenated. Witness Bryan Devendorf’s inventively insistent drumming in “Alien,” and the avant-garde, yet accessible, guitar solos that Aaron and Bryce Dessner contribute throughout. There’s a sense that the band’s newfound approach to each other as people has allowed each member to be, and play as, the best version of themselves.
The album is also rich with grace notes from visiting friends. Sufjan Stevens lends hauntingly pretty backing vocals to the meditative, piano-led album opener “Once Upon a Poolside.” Likeminded soul Phoebe Bridgers lends touches of her trademark mixture of light and dark to two songs, including the ethereal “Your Mind is Not Your Friend,” which is as much self-talk mantra as it is advice to a struggling friend. It’s also a song title that could almost be a thesis statement for the National’s music. (Note: “The Alcott,” the album’s song featuring frequent Aaron Dessner collaborator Taylor Swift, was not made available for review. The Arts STL has tried to shake it off, shake it off, shake it off.)
The National are a band that has made an art form out of understatement. Radiating purposeful simplicity, First Two Pages of Frankenstein takes it to another level. The approach comes together most affectingly in the kindhearted album finale “Send for Me,” where Berninger sings, over comforting piano, heartbeat drums, and understated birdsong trills of guitar, “send for me whenever, wherever. Send for me, I’ll come and get you.” When in doubt, start small. Little things come back to you. Small successes build on each other, until eventually, you come to a point where you’ve not only recovered your soul, you’ve added a new chamber to it. Frankenstein isn’t just a deep breath to get back to level, it’s a springboard for the future, which is the greatest gift a veteran band like the National could give their fans…and themselves. | Mike Rengel
First Two Pages of Frankenstein will be released on Friday, April 28th.
