Photo: Emma Viola Lilja
As The National world tour continues before arriving in the UK to headline Latitude, the band have unveiled two very promising new songs from their upcoming album. Check out 'The Day I Die' and 'Sometimes I Don't Think' below.
The band were performing at the Welcome To Hamilton benefit concert in Hamilton, Ontario to raise money for young Syrian refugees in the city when they aired the new tracks.
'The Day I Die' rumbles along with that blend of compulsive rhythm and a menacing potential energy in the same ilk as 'Graceless', before soon blooming into an almighty guitar and choral climax. We only have a shorter clip to go by for 'Sometimes I Don't Think' (previously known online as 'Hague Blue'), but it appears to be the slow, simmering and sombre cousin to 'I Need My Girl', which is certainly no bad thing by any means.
'The Day I Die'
'Sometimes I Don't Think'
The band have been at work on their next record since 2014, when frontman Matt Berninger told Gigwise that they were trying to "get together to try and write together in a room - which we've never done. We always work on little things and email back and forth. We have no idea whether it's going to work or not, but that's as far as we've got with the new record: trying to work out a plan and a different approach."
He continued: "That might fail miserably, but then we'll try it a different way."
When asked if the band had any idea or hopes on what their next record could sound like, Berninger said: "No, not really. Everybody's been talking about it and people have different ideas about what kind of record they want to make. But every time we all talk about that, it never helps anyone figure it out. It's never a very good creative catalyst to say 'I'm going to make this kind of record'. It's never been that helpful for me at least, let's just wait to see where things go organically and naturally."
Meanwhile, The National will be headlining Latitude alongside the likes of New Order, The Maccabees, Father John Misty, Chvrches, Frightened Rabbit and many more. Latitude Festival takes place from 14 to 17 July at Henham Park, Suffolk. Get tickets and more information here.
