SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE NATIONAL – LAUGH TRACK

THE NATIONAL
LAUGH TRACK
4AD

You wait four years for a new album from The National, and two come along at once. Hot on the heels of the excellent First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, Laugh Track is a surprise release from the Brooklyn-based gloom rockers, and their latest attempt to reclaim their pedestal as the vanguards of the indie scene, and it’s an album that rewards the listener for spending time with it.

The opening tracks, “Alphabet City” and “Deep End (Paul’s In Pieces)” are pretty straight-ahead rock, possibly the least opaque that The National have ever sounded, but after that, they hit their very best form, playing a vast, awesome soundscape of musical warmth that swallows the listener whole.

The run of songs starting at “Dreaming” must be one of the finest in any album this year, with each song impossibly perfect in its own way. Whether it’s the title track, a beautifully sad ballad driven along with help from rock royalty Phoebe Bridgers, the epic “Space Invader”, in which Bryan Devendorf’s drumming really shines, or the gorgeous melancholy of the piano-driven “Hornets”, this is The National at their very best, the obviousness of their experience shining through in their musicianship – the subtle use of horns to build atmosphere being a great example of this.

Some albums are just the right album at the right moment – this is one of them. The National are back, and this tremendous album is a real statement of intent.  One of the best albums of the year.

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