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How many listens do you give a new album before making your mind up on whether you like it or not? One? Two? Three?
Veteran Brooklyn-based quintet have always been the epitome of a ‘slow burner’. An outfit, if you’re patient enough to invest in their melancholic insecurities and elegiac, shimmering melodies, which will reap dividends in handsome, ever-growing quantities.
2010’s High Violet was such a case in point, indicative of their 11-year career at that point to date. Majestic, heart-wrenching and, at times, soberingly beautiful, it took several listens before the true beauty of tracks like 'Lemonworld' and 'Conversation 16' hit home.
Buoyed by the hip support of an Obama election campaign plug, the record swooped into more hearts than ever before, putting them here, in 2013, in quite the interesting position. Towering baritone Matt Berninger said so himself, confessing they finally had the ‘thing’ they had been chasing for a decade and could finally relax, meaning the follow-up to High Violet would be a more instant and, dare I say it, commercial affair.
So is it? Thankfully no, ironically, it takes even more listens than their previous releases to connect to Trouble Will Find Me.
I’ve had it on the work commute all week and it was three or four days before I finally started to really enjoy a number of the tracks.
Opener 'I Shall Live In Salt', left me feeling strangely non-plussed at first, but it’s gentle orchestration and yearning refrain slowly seeped through and it now feels like a strong starter.
Elsewhere, single 'Demons' is archetypal The National, draped in dark thoughts and self-doubt, while 'Sea Of Love' with its album title refrain, surfs on Bryan Devendorf’s urgent drum groove and 'This Is The Last Time' and 'Slipped' are the sort of fag end of the night contemplation tracks The National do so well.
'I Need My Girl' (with it’s amusing ‘remember when you lost your sh** and drove your car into the garden’ line) is dreamy, yet dark and album closer 'Hard To Find' is tender and beautifully layered.
That said, it’s no High Violet. One of the best albums of the last decade was always going to take some beating and The National have undoubtedly fallen short. 'Graceless' and 'Pink Rabbits' both miss the mark musically, despite their thought-provoking lyrics and the album overall is a couple of tracks too long, allowing it to meander in a way High Violet never does.
Does Trouble Will Find Me deserve to find a way into your hearts and record collections though? Most definitely, there’s plenty still hear to enjoy, relate to and generally allow to permeate your consciousness. The National - it’s good to have you back.
