Brooklyn indie royalty The National already announced that they planned to release the follow-up to 2010’s High Violet in mid-year, but now the band have some more details on their “immediate and visceral” sixth studio album, according to their frontman.
Titled Trouble Will Find Me, the 13-track album is out on May 20 through 4AD records and the band have revealed the album’s tracklist as well as the uber-sleek, mildly creepy cover artwork (which you can view below), taken by Deirdre O’Callaghan.
Trouble Will Find Me was self-produced by the quintet and recorded at Clubhouse Studios in their native New York, reports a press release in which Matt Berninger, he of the emotionally devastating voice and lyrics, writes:
For the past 10 years we’d been chasing something, wanting to prove something. And this chase was about trying to disprove our own insecurities. After touring High Violet, I think we felt like we’d finally gotten there. Now we could relax – not in terms of our own expectations but we didn’t have to prove our identity any longer.”
Guitarist Aaron Dessner adds that, “our ideas would immediately click with each other. It’s free-wheeling again. The songs on one level are our most complex, and on another they’re our most simple and human. It just feels like we’ve embraced the chemistry we have.”
The National unveiled new tracks while headlining their very own curated All Tomorrow’s Parties incarnation in England last December, but of the four new songs, only ‘I Need My Girl’ has made the final cut on Trouble Will Find Me; that is unless the other three – ‘Lola’, ‘Sullivan’, and ‘Prime’ have undergone a name change.
Additionally, the Brooklyn band are also the subject of a forthcoming documentary directed by Matt Berninger’s brother Tom, entitled Mistaken For Strangers as Pitchfork reports, which makes its global premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 17.
It has been three years since the National released their fifth studio album High Violet, which spawned such favourites as ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, ‘Conversation 16′ and ‘Terrible Love’ and also saw the band tour Australia twice, playing both the Falls and Harvest Festivals at the beginning and end of 2011.“Our ideas would immediately click with each other. It’s free-wheeling again. The songs on one level are our most complex, and on another they’re our most simple and human.” – Aaron Dessner, The National
On top of their extensive touring, the group have released new material between records, including a recording of “The Rains of Castamere – their contribution to the soundtrack for the über-successful HBO TV series Game Of Thrones, as well as a song to the popular videogame Portal 2 in 2012.
Vocalist Matt Berninger also contributed to Brooklyn-based interactive team Small Planet’s new interactive storybook app Dragon Brush, narrating the children’s story. The app also features a score by Berninger’s fellow bandmates, brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, who provide a plaintive guitar soundtrack while Berninger reads in his dulcet tones.
Bryce Dessner was recently on our shores this month as part of Adelaide Festival’s impressive musical programme, writing and curating a post-classical repertoire that featured indie collective Clogs, Padma Newsome, and the Adelaide Art Orchestra. Hopefully, the release of a new album by The National will mean a return from Dessner and co. before the end of the year.
In related album release news, fellow New York band Vampire Weekend recently dropped not one, but two new tastes of their forthcoming third album Modern Vampires Of The City, as have Yeah Yeah Yeahs – the NY art-rock trio dropping several teasers in the lead-up to their latest; while The Strokes’ fifth album, Comedown Machine, has also been drip-fed to fans, with Pitchfork Advance currently streaming the entire album on their website.
Other notable international releases due for 2013 include the hugely anticipated, disco-influenced album from Parisian duo Daft Punk, a new album from fellow Frenchmen and indie popsters Phoenix, the latest from grunge veterans Mudhoney, new material from City and Colour aka Dallas Green, an LP from Palms – the new outfit featuring Deftones’ Chino Moreno and ex-Isis members, the new Fall Out Boy release, and The Knife’s first album in seven years, Shaking The Habitual; with the Swedish duo recently releasing a batshit insane press release for their 98 minute long opus.
Similarly we can see brand new tunes from local artists including a long overdue return from Empire of the Sun, the Cat Empire’s latest, the second album from Melbourne twosome Big Scary, the Russian inspired return of Midnight Juggernauts, and a heap of new albums from the likes of Bernard Fanning, Birds of Tokyo, Hermitude, Airbourne, Super Wild Horses, and a swathe of new material from Perth outfit Pond.
You can view the artwork and tracklisting for The National’s Trouble Will Find Me below:
Trouble Will Find Me:
01 I Should Live in Salt
02 Demons
03 Don’t Swallow the Cap
04 Fireproof
05 Sea of Love
06 Heavenfaced
07 This is the Last Time
08 Graceless
09 Slipped
10 I Need My Girl
11 Humiliation
12 Pink Rabbits
13 Hard to Find
