For The National’s seventh studio album, Sleep Well Beast, the band mixes things up by adding electronic textures/samples, floating vocal harmonies and piano to their signature formula of layered indie rock, baritone vocals, and their literary and often detail-oriented introspective lyrics. Sleep Well Beast is strikingly beautiful, and continues with themes of love, loss, wine and weed, with euphoric sorrow underpinning The National’s compositional brilliance and electronic experimentation. Album highlights include: the anthemic “Day I Die”; the soaring first single “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”; the pulsing “Walk It Back”; the gorgeous piano ballad “Born to Beg”; the raw lo-fi urgency of “Turtleneck”; the melancholic “Carin at the Liquor Store”; and the sorrowful beauty of “Guilty Party.” Sleep Well Beast showcases a great band’s organic growth and willingness to keep things sounding fresh yet familiar. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | Arcade Fire, EL VY, Interpol, Joy Division, The War on Drugs