The National share snippet of music ahead of new album

13 January, 2023

Matt Berninger of The National

The National have shared a teaser of music ahead of their new album.

The band posted a short clip on Twitter featuring 25 seconds of music with frontman Matt Berninger facing a piano. At the end of the clip he turns around holding up a book of Frankenstein.

Earlier this week, The National sent teasers to members of their Cherry Tree fan community, hinting at something being announced today (January 13).

One Reddit user posted a photo of a cutout face, with a “Hello, my name is Paul” sticker on its head. On the back is today’s date, plus the words “Tranquilize the Mind”.

Another user later shared that they had received the same cutout face, but theirs had the words “Evil Forebodings” written on the back.

Today, the band shared a link on their Twitter page with the name of their website and the letters “lp9”.

The click through asks for a password which is indeed Evil Forebodings and takes the user to a passage from the book of Frankenstein which features the character Robert Walton telling his sister in a letter that his expedition has not had a major disaster yet. 

It also features another snippet of music similar to that on the band’s clip on Twitter but includes vocals from Berninger and a driving guitar.

The music suggests that the title of the track or their new album could be called ‘Evil Forebodings’. Details are yet to be confirmed by the band.

The National

Last year saw The National return with the single ‘Weird Goodbyes’, a collaboration with Bon Iver. Speaking about the song, Berninger explained at the time: “It’s about letting go of the past and moving on, then later being overwhelmed by second thoughts.”

As for the process of creating the track, the band’s Aaron Dessner added: “‘Weird Goodbyes’ was one of the first new songs we made. I was misusing drum machines, as usual, and stumbled onto this beat that got stuck in my head – it felt like something only Bryan could naturally play. We built the song around the beat.”

In September, the band shared a remix of Neu!‘s 1972 track ‘Im Glück’. Their new interpretation of the song featured as part of Neu!’s 50th anniversary boxset, which was released on September 23 via British-German label Grönland Records.

During a recent interview with NME, Bryce Dessner talked about what fans can expect from The National’s new material. “It’s starting to become something we’re really excited about,” he said. “It’s hard to say what shape it will take, but there’s a ton there.”

The National released their eighth and most recent studio album, ‘I Am Easy To Find’, back in 2019.

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