The National
Sleep Well Beast
[4AD]
For a band seven albums in who trade in songiness rather than instrumental fireworks, providing the kind of shareable content that folks are looking for nowadays is a challenge, but the National have made an admirable stab here.
By employing some deconstruction of their sound – a electronic touch here, a rough edge there, an intentionally disconcerting mix – Sleep Well Beast makes itself palpably distinct, and you can sense the band’s internal excitement.
Overall however, it does not stray very far from the canon, and works best when the tempo and guitars are cranked.
Words – Ian Lamont
