Yeah, sounds like the album isn’t quite finished, but it’s close. That clip is great, though! I need more.
Listened to IAETF today due to the discussion in the thread, still an amazing album and I actually love that Matt ceded some vocal duties to others on it, adds a lot of charm to the album and would love to hear more of that (especially from the great Lisa Hannigan).
I think they slipped a little on curation/setting the track list but, songwriting and performance wise, it’s A+ mature National and letting the album get long/unfocused in service of making it a multimedia album/film project with a director they like seems worth the cost from an artist’s POV.
You roll the three interludes into their respective neighbours on the record (or elsewhere) and suddenly it's a 13-song album. I still think they should have done that tbh
Oblivions is a bottom tier track for me. There’s probably 2-3 songs on that record that I’d say are top 20, though.
wow, I literally thought I was the only one who thought this. Might be my less favorite non interlude on it. Title track and Rylan are S tier National songs for me. First two not far behind, either.
Soul, Quiet Light, SFSF, Rylan all go. Pull of You was better when it was Sometimes I Don’t Think. Where is Her Head is fun. Light Years is a favorite National piano track.
The only way I'd drop Not In Kansas is to replace it with the 10+ minute Matt-only version that was briefly mentioned somewhere.