Album Rating: 1.0

‘I hope The National see this poverty 3 average and get it together next album’

I’m sure this will be their main source of motivation and that they hate all this mainstream success. I think we should all help make the average even lower, so we can encourage them to create something truly special next time. You know, in an effort to prove us wrong

Album Rating: 3.0

Wow a 1 for this seems really harsh to me. Opener, New Order T-Shirt & Tropic Morning News are all really good, some other songs that are at least decent



But yeah brb gonna lower my rating so they create something truly special next time [2]

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkHGFG-el1g



Surprise album announcment.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

They've lost the plot, some sort of strange death rattle



Imagine if it's a 1.5

Album Rating: 2.5

Interesting. Hope it's a return to form but expecting more Taylor Swift b-side piano ballads.

There is at least one song (live) on youtube: Smoke detector

Album Rating: 2.5

“Weird Goodbyes” and the two recent singles are on it as well.

Album Rating: 1.0

Laugh Track, huh? Wow, I choose to presume this is in homage to the great Unwound song and therefore it’s gonna be lit 😆

“Weird Goodbyes” and the two recent singles are on it as well."

Damn I really hope it's a different version than the Bon Iver one

Album Rating: 2.5

Not sure. Apparently they’re selling physical copies already at their shows this weekend. I’m optimistic though. It seems like they had a bout of genuine inspiration after finishing this. Unless there are some real stinkers, having “Space Invader” should automatically make it better than this at least.

fingers crossed!

Smoke detector sounds pretty damn great tho. A slight return to form.

Album Rating: 2.5

According to someone on RYM the tracklist is:

“Alphabet City”

“Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces)”

“Weird Goodbyes”

“Turn Off the House”

“Dreaming”

“Laugh Track”

“Space Invader”

“Hornets”

“Coat on a Hook”

“Tour Manager”

“Crumble”

“Smoke Detector”

Album Rating: 2.0

RIP The National

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

I love Space Invader and Alphabet City, and Weird Goodbyes was very good too, all sound different from this; maybe Laugh Track will redeem them a bit.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

Listening now at work. Deep End kinda fucks ngl

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

This is already so much livelier than TFTPOF. Can’t wait for the inevitable Rowan visit to this thread in the next hour or so too!

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

Holy shit Crumble is simultaneously serving Serpentine Prison vibes while also being a huge highlight

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

Last song makes the new release worthwhile - that's fantastic, their best song since SWB hands down.



My second favourite is 'Weird Goodbyes' which is still a bit dispiriting...third favourite was the Phoebe Bridgers feature!



So while it is a step in the right direction and they get a bit more direct and land on a (gasp) melody worth hearing from time to time...it's still nothing special.



Probably the way I'd describe it is imagine a whole album of the quality of your three least favourite SWB songs and uh, that's this new album!



Sadly that description makes it only their 4th worst album but I'd rank it higher than the debut and its two predecessors (more thanks to consistency because I still would say 'I Am Easy to Find' has about the same proportion of 'highlights')

Album Rating: 2.5

In first listen Laugh Track is definitely better than this, remains to be seen how it stacks up to IAETF for me but it’s certainly a step back in the right direction - it’s going to be even harder not to look at Frankenstein as a misstep now, in contrast to Laugh Track it really feels like them catering to their most “commercial” impulses whereas Laugh Track, while not experimental by any means, is definitely l more interesting. We’ll see how repeat listens go, as is I do think they could’ve cut a couple tracks, it doesn’t need to be an hour long.

Album Rating: 2.5

I got 4 songs into Laugh Track this morning, first 2 were really boring and next 2 were decent. Interested to see what the rest of the album is like.