Laugh Track. The National

A few weeks ago, out of the blue The National dropped a second album this year. To get the album physically, we had to be patient for a few more weeks but on 17 November it was possible to buy it. I did, and to my delight.

No longer to my surprise but had you asked me a few years ago whether I would buy two albums of the band in one year, I would have asked you, what are you thinking? Somehow the band totally eluded me from the very start. I have no explanation. The only one I can give you is that reviews must not have attracted me in any way. Somewhere in the previous decade the band, to me, all of a sudden was presented as an important band to follow. I did not get the excitement listening to whatever album.

Somehow that changed, slowly, and mostly because singer Matt Berninger's solo album found its way into my home. So, the step to the previous The National album, 'First Two Pages Of Frankenstein', album was not that big anymore. And then I checked the blog and found a review of 'Trouble Will Find Me' from my hand. Recognising the cover, I checked some more and found I had a cd in my home, I had forgotten all about.

Something changed. In my review from 2013 I wrote that despite having listened many times to the album, "I do not know what to write about this new album of The National". That's happened to me for a few weeks now with Laugh Track. No longer, as the album has so much atmosphere and warmth. This is more than enough to convey to you. Like the track with Bon Iver, 'Weird Goodbyes'. (The first song actually I like by this singer!) Not much appears to be happening, yet it all falls into place.

The two songs in which one of the usually fairly anonymously operating Davendorf brothers goes berserk behind his drum kit, are as strange as they are fascinating. In 'Turn Off The House' a somewhat faster ballad, but aren't all The National songs ballads of some kind?, where the drums are all over the place while all else is subdued and atmospheric. It's almost estranging, but works so well. Slowly the song turns into a cooker with an electric guitar soaring in the background. One of the great tracks on Laugh Track this is.

In one of the reviews I read of Laugh Track, it was mentioned that the album did not compare to all albums from before 'Alligator' with the two loud endings as faint recollections. It is the sort of review I usually have some trouble with, as it is written by a reviewer who forgets that he has become older as well and does not allow "his" band to evolve. It is something that happens to most people I suppose, as it did to me over thirty years ago, until I found I did not have to look back exclusively to music. This was when the world opened, allowing me to discover albums like this, even if it is well into the career of The National.

I can't tell why I did not like 'High Violet', the album my 2013 review referred to. It's time I give these older albums a chance and see what happens. Laugh Track and "Frankenstein" are albums that certainly give rise to do so. Having listened to Laugh Track many times by now, I can say I like it even better than its predecessor. It looks like The National has a new fan.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Laugh Track here:

https://thenational.bandcamp.com/album/laugh-track