The National’s Matt Berninger says their last two albums are “very connected”
The National frontman Matt Berninger has discussed the connection between two albums released in 2023, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein and Laugh Track.
Earlier this year, The National released First Two Pages Of Frankenstein before surprisingly sharing Laugh Track on September 18th without a traditional album campaign. While the two records arrived several months apart, Berninger has now explained why they are aligned in his mind.
Before work began on either of the albums, Berninger was going through a lengthy phase of depression, which prevented him from being able to write. In a new interview with NME, the singer explained: “When we first started writing, Aaron and Bryce [Dessner, guitarists] sent me so much music. I had been sitting on it for at least a year. A lot of the things across both of these records are from that long phase where they were all very prolific and I couldn’t do anything.”
Berninger added: “I curated ‘Frankenstein’ and kept a lot back. It was my idea not to put ‘Weird Goodbyes’ in that batch, but then the other ones all kept growing. A few new things came up, but these two records definitely feel like one phase and one journey.”
The frontman then revealed it was a conscious decision to make the album covers deliberately similar which illustrates the connection between the records.
“After not wanting to think or write about anything that I had been going through for so long, finally I started writing about it all,” he noted. “I hope I don’t write about depression for a while because I feel like I turned over every leaf and looked into every corner there There’s a lot on these two records, but it all feels very connected to me. I wanted them to essentially have the same cover”.
The National recently concluded a short tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. In a five-star review of their show at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, Far Out said: “Generally, gigs shouldn’t last more than 90 minutes, but The National are one of the rare exceptions. The set lasted almost two and a half hours, causing the band to break the venue’s 11pm curfew, and they could have played for another hour if they so desired.”
The review continued: “After the moving show, my inner monologue was consumed by debating whether The National are the most influential indie band over the last 20 years. While it’s impossible to come to an objective conclusion, I know where I stand.”
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