One of the questions I ask myself the more I listen to a song or album is: "am I being fair?" It seems tough to project an objective air about something you so openly profess your love for, as I have on a few occasions with the National, a band that has been a staple in my library for nearly (only) seven years.
With the release of their sixth LP, 4AD's "Trouble Will Find Me," I began asking myself that question even before I heard a word. Would I be fair to this record and judge it on its own merits, or would my history with the band color my glasses rose and render objectivity impossible? Fortunately, I think I've been able to hear this record objectively, and can evaluate it as impartially as I hoped I would be able to.
Opener "I Should Live In Salt," a tune Matt Berninger penned about his brother - and documentarian - Tom, starts off with an element immediately unusual to the band: strummed guitar chords. Brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner have a penchant and preference for picked notes, so to hear a strummed acoustic open a National album feels like it'd be indicative of a sea change.
In reality, though, that's pretty far from the truth. "Trouble" continues on the path "High Violet" began to blaze three years earlier: a more expansive sound in production, metered energy with moments of soaring emotion. Sufjan Stevens's influence was fairly evident on "High Violet," and more than a few of the vocal harmonies on "Trouble" evoke the feeling that he had something to do with it.
Singles "Demons" and "Don't Swallow the Cap" follow up, with the former packing more punch than the latter, especially once comfort sets in with its unusual time signature (me not being an expert, I can't recall if it was decided to be 8/7 or 7/4 or something else entirely). That trend continues into "Fireproof," the album's weakest track, which doesn't meander but doesn't ever get any more interesting as it goes.
What saves the album from a downward spiral starting right then and there is "Sea of Love," arguably the album's finest track, as the next to play. It serves as a transition that brings us out of the album's prologue and into the heart of the order. Energized by some trademark Bryan Devendorf drum rolls and a (restrained) yelling Berninger quizzing a "Jo," (or "Joe?") "what did Harvard teach you?"
"Trouble's" second half is pretty emotionally evocative, even by National standards. Berninger's smoother, post-smoking voice has a softer feel to it, and rarely has he seemed more vulnerable than on tracks like "I Need My Girl," the "oldest" of the album's tracks with live performances dating back to 2011. "This Is the Last Time" feels like the signature National song of the post-"Boxer" era, a calm starter that blossoms around Berninger's heart-on-sleeve lyrics until the frontman is shouting "I won't be vacant anymore / I won't be waiting anymore" as a proclamation of recovery...only to have the song grind to a halt as he confesses, "Jenny, I am in trouble."
Each of the album's second-half songs have a signature characteristic (or more). "Graceless" and its traded drum hits; "Slipped" and its poignant tag "I'll be a friend and a fuck-up, and everything / But I'll never be anything you ever want me to be;" "Humiliation" and its woozy lyrical drift; "Pink Rabbits" and its wonderful piano hook; and "Hard to Find" with its perfectly executed Sharon Van Etten cameo.
All of these things are solid elements and make for strong songs. They remind the listener that yes, this is the National you're listening to, but not quite the National you've grown up with. There is no "Mr. November" or "Fake Empire" on this album, no song that immediately registers as something really important and with limitless repeat play potential.
It's funny how that's the standard now with this band, and the one against which they'll be judged for as long as they continue to make music. If that's perceived as a slight, it's only because there are no fatal flaws on this album. There are flaws, to be sure, and those flaws are a bit more noticeable than those on the previous three albums. Its high points register about as high as the pinnacles of those previous albums, though, and "Trouble Will Find Me" will belong in the discussion of the year's best albums.
Grade: 9.0/10
