The National’s eighth album I Am Easy to Find is not just an introduction to a new sound for the band, but also one of the most powerful albums you’ll hear this year.
I remember first hearing the National when they opened for Arcade Fire back in May 2007, when Arcade Fire was touring for Neon Bible and the National were touring for their upcoming breakthrough release Boxer. I’m mentioning this not to get any sort of “indie cred,” but because these two indie titans have charted somewhat divergent paths recently.
Arcade Fire rose to become one of the most-recognized indie rock bands ever, culminating in the win of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2011 for their album The Suburbs. However, they’ve lost some of their luster since then, largely thanks to the lukewarm reception of their 2017 album Everything Now and its accompanying over-the-top promotional campaign. The National, meanwhile, tread a less erratic course, never reaching Arcade Fire’s peak of popularity but finding critical acclaim with each album. Most fascinating of all, the National have stayed in the good graces of their fans and critics without ever significantly changing their sound. Arcade Fire might have gone from baroque pop to synthpop over the years, but the National have largely eschewed any unusual instruments or non-traditional rock styles. Sure, they had a brief alt-country tinge in their early years, and there were those few tracks where singer Matt Berninger screamed, but they’ve been remarkably consistent from album to album otherwise.
The National’s eighth studio album I Am Easy to Find stands out from its predecessors for a multitude of reasons. First off, it’s accompanied by an artsy short film that stars Alicia Vikander, directed by the album’s co-producer Mike Mills. Second, several of its tracks are either outtakes from the band’s 2017 album Sleep Well Beast or have otherwise been floating around live setlists for a while, making it seem like a semi-compilation akin to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Third and most noticeable of all, it prominently features a cast of guest vocalists, all of whom are women. These are relatively small shifts in the grand scheme of the band’s two decades, and much of the album is the same consistent sound you’d expect from the National, but I Am Easy to Find shakes things up just enough to breathe new life into their music.
While the National have included guest vocalists on almost all of their previous albums, they tended to be in the background and required attentive listening to detect. On I Am Easy to Find, a full ensemble of guest singers receives equal if not greater prominence than Berninger’s distinctive baritone, including Gail Ann Dorsey, Eve Owens, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tindle, Kate Stables, and the Brooklyn Youth Choir. Only the closing track “Light Years” lacks any guests at all, and on the flipside, Berninger is completely absent on “Dust Swirls in Strange Light.” On all other tracks, Berninger either trades off with or accompanies the other vocalists. Their voices weave in and out of each song and aren’t credited outside of the liner notes, so it can be hard to pin down each individual contribution. That said, when Gail Ann Dorsey comes in halfway through the opening track “You Had Your Soul with You,” she does an incredible job of setting the tone for the rest of the album, stealing the show with her verse. Reversing this formula, Eve Owens and the National’s guitarist Aaron Dessner sing the first portion of “Where is Her Head?” making Berninger’s entrance halfway through feel like a grand reveal. The presence of these singers allows the tracks to function more as conversations than monologues, and Berninger often finds his neuroses either reassured or challenged throughout I Am Easy to Find.
The conspicuous presence of non-Berninger voices on I Am Easy to Find is a fairly obvious break from the past, but there’s also a pretty noticeable stylistic shift on several tracks as well: the recurring use of these voices to create church choir-like effect. This is best utilized on tracks like “Oblivions,” a heartfelt but somber song about the trials of marriage, where a choir takes over completely for the final 30 seconds to create an ominous sensation. The Brooklyn Youth Choir also steps in to for the final stanza of “So Far, So Fast,” helping it build to its climactic finale. Sometimes this pious sound is applied a little too heavily though. For instance, “Dust Swirls in Strange Light” throws you right into the middle of choir practice, and Berninger’s complete absence here will make you double-check which band’s album is playing. Separately, the meandering “Not in Kansas” is very Berninger-heavy, but its chorus line (taken from the track “Noble Experiment” by the 90s cult act Thinking Fellers Union Local 282) is delivered by a trio of guest vocalists who annunciate each syllable as if it were a hymn. This, combined with the heaven-like ambient effects while they sing, is a little much, especially when contrasted with the sparse, almost folksy style of Berninger’s verses. Choirs also dominate the album’s two interlude tracks, and while “Her Father in the Pool” serves as a lofty breather, “Underwater” feels out of place with how haunting it sounds.
These differences aside, there is a strong common thread linking I Am Easy to Find with the National’s prior releases in Bryan Devendorf’s distinctive snare-heavy drumming. “Rylan,” a track that has been in the works for over five years now, finally finds a home on the album, and you’ll be glad it did. Its drum line makes it an instant classic for the National, right up there with “Apartment Story” and “Don’t Swallow the Cap.” Elsewhere, “You Had Your Soul With You,” “Quiet Light,” “The Pull of You,” and “Where is Her Head” all benefit heavily from Devendorf’s drumming, where he acts as the driving force behind each galloping beat. With Berninger occupying the limelight less often on I Am Easy to Find, it’s good to have the strong instrumental backbone that has essentially become a trademark of the National.
The lyrics on I Am Easy to Find are also a surefire way to recognize it as release by the National, meaning yes, they are often dismal and bleak. You have your expected fare like “learning how not to die a little inside every time I think about you and wonder if you are awake” (from “Quiet Light”), but it’s not all so bluntly stated. The track “Not in Kansas” is sung in a very stream of consciousness manner, having been trimmed down from a nine minute rant and made into a coherent song. As such, it’s a mix of clever lines, like one comparing the Bible (or “the First Testament” and “its sequel” as Berninger calls them) to the first two Strokes albums, alongside quips like “it’s half your fault so half forgive me.” In terms of sentimentality, nothing comes close to the title track where Berninger and Kate Stables combine their voices to sing a chorus of “there’s a million little battles that I’m never gonna win anyway, I’m still waiting for you every night with ticker tape.” It’s a line that beautifully captures long term contentment and compromise, and the track’s minimal instrumentation coupled with the outro’s backing vocals ensure it will leave a lasting impression.
Of course, the National are also known for juxtaposing their most profound lines with some headscratchers – this is the same band that gave us “I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees” on High Violet and “I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park” on Trouble Will Find Me. I Am Easy to Find doesn’t disappoint here. “The Pull of You” contains the introspective “sometimes I don’t think I’m really around here half the time” alongside the nonsensical “maybe we’ll end up the ones eating chocolate chip pancakes next to a charity swimming pool.” Similarly, just as “Not in Kansas” has its aforementioned poetic moments, it also gives us the rhyme “I must have left it in my pocket/With my Christianity in my rocket.” The National have long been a band that can cut you deep one moment and make you think “what the hell?” the next.
Like the Vampire Weekend album that came out earlier this month, there’s a lot to take in on I Am Easy to Find’s 16 tracks, and its hour-plus run time continues the trend of each National album since 2007’s Boxer being longer than the last. Even if there hadn’t been an accompanying short film, it still feels cinematic. Its motifs of holy-sounding choirs and lyrics about long-term connections make it a very cohesive release, which is doubly impressive given how many tracks on it were written years ago. It would have been remarkable within the National’s discography for these traits alone, but the ensemble of guest singers really solidifies its uniqueness. Furthermore, the album differentiates itself from other “mid-tempo indie rock with a mixed-gender cast of singers geared towards older millennials” (see: Broken Social Scene and the New Pornographers) by combining solemn tones, earnest lyrics, distinctive instrumentation, and a new blend of voices that really enhance each track with their presence. I Am Easy to Find is not just an introduction to a new sound for the National, but also one of the most powerful albums you’ll hear this year, and is a shining example of why this band has yet to fall out of our good graces.
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