The Absolute Sound Super Disc List TAS Harry Pearson Super LP List
2018 Grammy Award Winner!
• Best Alternative Music Album: Sleep Well Beast
White Vinyl Double LP!
One of Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2017!
The National are pleased to announce their 7th studio album, Sleep Well Beast on the 4AD record label.
Sleep Well Beast was produced by member Aaron Dessner with additional production by Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner. The album was mixed by Peter Katis and recorded at Aaron Dessner’s Hudson Valley, New York studio, Long Pond.
"The National might be the closest thing America has ever had to The Smiths: a dexterous guitar band with a magnetically morose frontman who's able to complain about the government and his love life in the same breath with the same eloquence and the same dark humor. Sleep Well Beast certainly takes the air out of the hopeful balloon that swelled on Trouble Will Find Me, but if there's ever been a time to wallow in lush, masculine melancholy, it's now. This beast isn't going anywhere." - Sasha Geffen, Consequence Of Sound
"Sleep Well Beast feels – musically – like one of the band's richest, most interestingly-textured albums to date. Alongside some bar-room piano ('Carin…') and seriously moreish guitar riffs ('The System…') is a constant swirl, pulse, shimmer of assorted synths and swooping electronic tones puncturing and breaking through the density of the sound. This is unquestionably one of those albums that merits headphone listening, with so many brilliant little details – musical doodles and squiggles – that emerge over time and with the kind of close listening that it demands." - Jude Clarke, Drowned In Sound
"Where the Ohio-bred, Brooklyn-forged band makes its leap from admirable indie-rock high achievers to mainstream contenders, not via marketplace pandering but, rather, the old fashioned way: upping its musical and lyrical game. The band's trademark Joy Division gloom gets cut with sexiness and dark humor, abetted by co-writer Carin Besser (singer Matt Berninger's wife) plus backing singers Lisa Hannigan and Justin 'Bon Iver' Vernon. The soundscapes, meanwhile, are more striking than ever, with prominent electronics, edgy string arrangements and lancing guitar ('The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness'). It's a rock record that rages against our freakish cultural moment not by sloganeering but by turning inward, circling wagons, taking stock of beauty and love and gathering strength for what lies ahead." - Rolling Stone, 50 Best Albums of 2017
Features:
• White Vinyl
• Double LP
• Gatefold jacket
• Limited time download of the album
Selections:
1. Nobody Else Will Be There
2. Day I Die
3. Walk It Back
4. The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness
5. Born To Beg
6. Turtleneck
7. Empire Line
8. I'll Still Destroy You
9. Guilty Party
10. Carin At The Liquor Store
11. Dark Side Of The Gym
12. Sleep Well Beast
