Great news about Weird Goodbyes - I know a lot of people around here liked it but it’s truly a bottom five National song for me.
From what I see, the attention towards B&S decreases yearly. So The National might just kill them at all.
yup, instantly more optimistic about this record if that got cut. definition of going through the motions
It's kind of weird, because for me SWB was hugely refreshing after a run of albums that were starting to feel repetitive and I'm higher on IAETF than most here, but I agree. I think the Taylor albums are a big contributor - I haven't even listened to the BRM albums in full, but I'm pretty Dessnered out at this point after now 5 years of music from them that all feels pretty samey. Weird Goodbyes and High Infidelity are Dessner bros by the numbers and were kind of the straws that broke the camel's back for me. I'm looking forward to this record, but I'm really crossing my fingers that the majority of songs here don't feel musically interchangeable with SWB, or Folklore, etc
I’m kinda struggling with the band too, but it’s less the Dessners for me, it’s Matt’s lyrics and vocal delivery. Feel like the lyrics have become really saccharine or at times self-parody, and i feel like he always sounds tired when he sings. They were my absolute favorites for so long, and there are days where i think SWB is their best record, so I’ll definitely still check out anything they release. I just want to feel surprised by this band.
There were some big names on IAETF already, like I couldn't really hear Sharon Van Etten having a considerable vocal feature. Though here it's already on the tracklist, should mean more than background vocals. WG was just ok, but I still might miss Bon Iver being on the record, just cause I like guest appearances hahh.
Exactly, SWB has been the last one that shook me in a good way. IAETF turned out a bit too vague for my taste.
IAETF not my fave but I do love the title track, "Quiet Light", "So Far So Fast" and "Not In Kansas". I don't think the hit/miss ratio is much different from the previous album tbh, it's just too damn long.
I hope the new record will have some raw sound, no overproducing. Because WG was surely overproduced. The Dessners' recent collaborations with TS backfired a lot.
I’m being prolly too difficult on the band. Even bad, they’re good. I just want them to sound energized. Luckily most of the new tracks weren’t piano-driven, so there’s that at least.