1. Inland Ocean 2. No Love 3. Bonnet of Pins 4. Frozen Oranges 5. Breaking Into Acting [ft. Hand Habits] 6. Nowhere Special 7. Little by Little 8. Junk 9. Silver Jeep [ft. Ronboy] 10 Times of Difficulty 05-19 Seattle, WA - The Showbox 05-20 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo’s 365 Club 05-21 Los Angeles, CA - Palace Theatre 05-23 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue 05-24 Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall 05-26 Toronto, Ontario - Concert Hall 05-28 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer 05-29 Washington, D.C. - Lincoln Theatre 05-30 New York, NY - Webster Hall 08-23 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street 08-25 Glasgow, Scotland - SWG3 Galvanizers 08-26 Manchester, England - Albert Hall 08-27 London, England - Troxy 08-28-31 Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival 08-31 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli Vrendenburg 09-01 Antwerp, Belgium - Olt Rivierenhof 09-02 Paris, France - Elysee Montmartre 09-04 Berlin, Germany - Huxleys 09-05 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega 09-06 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller Music Hall
Serpentine Prison faded very quickly for me, but i love this. need to spin it again in preparation for the new album
Serp Pris is v good but I can’t vibe to it as it reminds me too much of the time period it came out in (early COVID + new baby anxiety). I dig how much more rockin’ this one is.
The price for the record is bananas. Single LP for $50-60 after tax and shipping is wild. Album is gonna be a streamer for this, Matt/Natty fan!
I cannot overstate how excited I am by this song. It is just so much more “alive” feeling than anything the national has put out in years.
It is very good. I do think it is also very “front man’s somewhat-generic/straight-forward solo record” and “session musicians playing good stuff correctly while Matt sings”. There are a handful of really good songs that I think make those descriptions feel reductive and his baritone storyteller vibe helps it become better than the sum of its parts. The new track sounds more like a proper band with Matt on vocals though which is exciting. I hope they lean more into this and this isn’t the one standout energy song and an unintentional fakeout as the single.
I'll die on this hill with you. ok there's a few songs on there I don't love (looking at you Distant Axis) but on the whole it rules while we're on the subject just wanna remind everyone of this absolutely gorgeous Mercury Rev cover he did in that era:
for the record, i don't hate Serpentine Prison. i have it on vinyl and it's sounded good every time i've played it. it just didn't have the pull i was expecting. i definitely need to go back and spin it again very soon.
Damn. New song is a certified snooze fest. Not into this kind of sparse twang songwriter dittie stuff, even with Matt mumbling over it.