Album Rating: 3.0

@Odal it's actually fucked how many singer songwriters are coming out of the woodwork sounding exactly like phoebe bridgers, vocal inflections and all. My girl and I were checking out that boygenius record on Spotify and it started autoplaying after the last track, proceeding to dump 5 distinctly different artists (all met with an instant skip) that all sounded exactly like her. Shameless fucks

To anyone on the outside looking in, The National have pretty much always been an insufferable band

VERY MUCH SO

Album Rating: 4.0

Anyone below a 3.5 on this I'm convinced just hates the band. You can't change my mind.

Album Rating: 2.5

@MeatSalad



dude it's insane. Like, there are hundreds of indistinguishable copycats that don't use Phoebe as a jumping off point, but rather just try to BE her. It's kinda disturbing. I've had a similar experience when listening to Boygeniuss/any of the members' solo stuff

Album Rating: 3.0

where the fuck did Smoke Detector come from

Album Rating: 3.0

i'm spotify famous you fucking bum

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

‘Anyone below a 3.5 on this I'm convinced just hates the band. You can't change my mind.’



I feel that 4.5’ing this is akin to curling out a hot turd on a vinyl copy of ‘Boxer’ or ‘High Violet’, it’s an insult, but that’s just my perspective ;P

Album Rating: 3.0

I put all my records in sleeves for this exact reason

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

Very wise

Gave up on this band after Trouble Will Find Me which is an amazing record.

I doubt this will pull me back in.

Album Rating: 4.0

Some second listen notes:



- “Alphabet City” is a cool opener, I wish there was a bit more on the album like it, it’s a good expansion of what they were doing on the more “experimental” moments of SWB

- “Deep End” is the obligatory upbeat post-punk-revival tune. It’s a very good one.

- All three features here are better than any of the features on the last two albums

- “Coat on a Hook” is easily the weakest, kind of a “nothing” song yet still better than several tracks on FTPOF

- “Space Invader” sounds like a High Violet song in the best way. It’s perfect.

- “Crumble” is fantastic

- “Smoke Detector” is so fucking cool, love to hear them being an actual band again.

- Overall, much better than Frankenstein but still has issues. At least two tracks could easily go for length’s sake (“Dreaming” and Coat are the top candidates, “Tour Manager” a bit behind), and if you’re greedy you can axe a couple more to slot in a couple of the better FTPOF tunes (basically, take your pick of the singles from that one).



A few songs here feel like potential growers, if that’s the case I think this’ll land as a solid 3.5 at least, with maybe a chance of going to a light 4.

Album Rating: 3.0

Yeah definitely feeling what others here have been saying with this one, few solid tracks but a lot of whatever midness. This band definitely cranked up the mainstream appeal a fair bit since I last listened to them (SWB)

Album Rating: 3.0

Scott’s performance on Turn Off The House is phenomenal

Album Rating: 4.0

This band definitely cranked up the mainstream appeal a fair bit since I last listened to them (SWB)



if anything the last 3 records have been LESS accessible than sleep well. I don't understand this take at all.

Album Rating: 4.0

You think the album with Taylor Swift on it is less accessible than Sleep Well Beast? Lmao.

Album Rating: 3.5

Sleep Well Beast won a Grammy. It’s p accessible apart from a few songs

Album Rating: 2.8

well yeah, but it also sucked shit

Great read Odal. Not in a rush to check this tbh.

Album Rating: 3.0

Closer is really good. Not yet sure if anything else matches it

Album Rating: 3.4

wow poor national fans