The National set to release surprise new album, ‘Laugh Track’

16 September, 2023

Matt Berninger of The National performing live

The National have unveiled details of a surprise new album, ‘Laugh Track’.

The album will be the follow up to their ninth studio album, ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein‘, which  NME described in a five-star review was “their best record in a decade.”

During a concert at their Homecoming Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Friday (September 15), the band revealed that the album will arrive on September 18 at midnight ET. They also announced that some fans attending the gig could obtain a vinyl copy of the album ahead of its official release in November. You can watch that moment here.

News of the new album comes after the band shared two new singles, ‘Space Invader’ and ‘Alphabet City’ back in August.

Elsewhere during their festival set, the band performed their 2010 album ‘High Violet‘ in full and brought out Patti Smith to duet on their track ‘I Need My Girl’. The band will return to the stage tonight (September 16), to perform ‘Trouble Will Find Me‘ in its entirety.

The band added that they were “so excited” to share the new album with fans. You can see the band announcing the album, and their performance with Smith, below:

 

Speaking to NME earlier this year,  Bryce and Aaron Dessner explained how they felt the band had fallen into a rut.

“I think our relationships had become largely focused on the work on the music, but we’d lost track of each other,” guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bryce Dessner said. “We’ve said that things felt fragile before, but I think this time was different. I think it was quite real and I think that it was actually necessary. We needed to let it go and accept the possibility that it would end.”

“This record to me – and to all of us – feels like the culmination of everything we’ve learned. Aesthetically, we are really proud of where it sits,” Bryce added. “We sound more like ourselves maybe than we did in recent times”.

Reviewing the album, which includes features with Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens, NME added that “this is The National back from their brink and at their absolute best”.

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