Staff Reviews

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Review by Marc Burrows

It’s rare songs this well imagined can create an album that is less than the sum of its parts.»

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'Trouble Will Find Me' is The National's new album on 4AD. This is the sixth studio album for the Brooklyn band, and follows 2010's critical and commercial success 'High Violet'. The album is the most self-assured collection of songs produced by The National in its 14-year career. 'Trouble Will Find Me' possesses a directness, a coherency and an approachability that suggests The National are at their most confident.
After a 22-month tour following the release of High Violet the band returned home. Regardless of plans to wait to record new music for another year or two, guitarist Aaron Dessner began working on sketches of new songs that the other members were too inspired by to not fully realise. Matt confesses, "For the past ten 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." The results are simultaneously breakthrough and oddly familiar, the culmination of an artistic journey that has led The National both to a new crest and, somehow, back to their beginnings - when, says Aaron, "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 album was recorded at Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY. 'Trouble Will Find Me' was self-produced and mixed by Craig Silvey with additional mixing from Peter Katis and Marcus Paquin.
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