The National - I Am Easy to Find

The Guardian 80

(4AD)
The band’s eighth album hymns other artists including REM on understated songs full of trademark emotional intensity

Do the National do a lot with a little, or a little with a lot? On the one hand, theirs is a lush, grandly developed sound, in which every element fits into place, where textures and tones brush up against each other to create an effect that’s often overwhelming. On the other hand, their desire to never be obvious means the National’s catalogue is hardly replete with bangers: they’ve created a musical universe that, while richly melodic, is more about mood and texture than big hooks.

All of which comes to mind strongly on their eighth album, which is rich with lyrical references to artists whose reputations were built on big hooks: the title track quotes from Echos Myron by Guided By Voices. Not in Kansas refers to “the first two Strokes”, to “listening to REM again / Begin the Begin over and over”, and then quotes The Flowers of Guatemala (it also interpolates the rather less obviously tuneful Thinking Fellers Union Local 282). Not in Kansas is a startling, brilliant song, one that seems to be trying to locate a cultural and geographical home. “Ohio’s in a downward spiral,” Matt Berninger sings, “Can’t go back there any more / Since alt-right opium went viral.” All he can be sure of is that, like Dorothy, he’s not in Kansas: “Where I am, I don’t know where.” It’s set to a gorgeous, limpid, understated melody and arrangement that serves to highlight the emotional intensity of the lyrics.

Related: The National: 'Everything you think is permanent can be erased'

Pitchfork 76

With a cast of female vocalists guiding and redirecting the songs, the National’s eighth album is their largest, longest, and most daring.

The Guardian 40

(4AD)

Twenty years into their career, the National have had a radical rethink for their eighth album. Film-maker Mike Mills has come on board to challenge the way they record, as well as cooking up a complementary but standalone short film of the same name, starring Alicia Vikander, but the bigger change finds frontman Matt Berninger sharing centre stage with – and frequently ceding it to – a string of female co-vocalists, including Sharon Van Etten, longtime Bowie foil Gail Ann Dorsey and Lisa Hannigan.

The resulting songs still sound unmistakably like the National – thoughtful, refined indie with restrained guitars and inventive rhythms, courtesy of drummer Bryan Devendorf – even if they’re at times smothered beneath choirs and strings. Indeed, perhaps the only elements missing from this overegged affair are, crucially, excitement and anything so much as a memorable melody. Elegant song after elegant song wafts past without ever quite succeeding in engaging. It’s not without its moments: Rylan at least possesses some energy, and the standout Not in Kansas is an affecting Berninger stream-of-consciousness set to minimal backing, which could double as an elliptical short story (and in which he references Roberta Flack and Annette Bening, and quotes Lifes Rich Pageant-era REM lyrics, a trick he repeats with Guided By Voices on the title track), before he’s joined by a chorus of Dorsey, Hannigan and This Is the Kit’s Kate Stables. But it’s an all too rare peak on a strangely flat album.