Objectively, Sleep Well Beast is a good album, and for two thirds of its hour-long runtime, The National deliver the kind of emotionally resonant songwriting that has made them indie rock heavies for two decades. The album begins to take shape on “Afraid of Everyone,” a slow-build midtempo rocker that expertly utilizes the Clogs’ (guitarist Bryce Dessner's other chamber pop band) prickly orchestrations, but it’s the punishing “Bloodbuzz Ohio” that serves as High Violet's centerpiece. Ranking: Every Album by The National from Worst to Best ... (She’s had writing credits on previous songs, but never across a full album.) While Julian Casablancas, Paul Banks, and Karen O spun vivid tales of debauchery after dark, Berninger sings about more relatable matters — failing relationships, unfulfilling office jobs, and crippling hangovers. It’s a good album in its own right, but Sad Songs is most important in how it transformed the band who released The National into the band who would release Alligator. The central narrative of the album is about saving a crumbling marriage, which gets really meta when you consider that Berninger’s wife, Carin Besser (a former fiction editor for The New Yorker), co-wrote the lyrics with him. However, on the National’s latest record, it takes less than three minutes before the somewhat expected sound of opener “You Had Your Soul with You” reveals a surprise: When the voice of Gail Ann Dorsey—a longtime member of David Bowie’s band—enters midway through the track, what for seven albums has been an inner monologue suddenly blossoms into a conversation. On Friday, The National will release their eighth album in 18 years, I Am Easy To Find. The National have worn a lot of hats since their 2001 debut, but they’ve never been able to shake the rural, book-smart, quiet malevolence of the Midwest. The saddest song on Sad Songs, and arguably one of the five saddest songs this band has ever made, is “Cardinal Song”. “I Am Easy to Find” may be a gamble—its lengthy runtime, forays into the abstract, and diversity of voices probably eliminate it as an ideal entry point into the band for new listeners—but it’s a calculated one. Take a moment to reflect on that. Of all the indie rock bands to emerge from New York City at the turn of the millennium, only a few have aged as gracefully as the Brooklyn-via-Cincinnati quintet. Bryan Devendorf has shared his debut album today, and first album in which he’s lead vocalist. (Read: Did Vampire Weekend Win the Indie Rock Age?). In interviews discussing the releases, members of the National have suggested that the two projects developed in parallel, with Mills’ film influencing the album’s music and vice-versa. The Brooklyn-groomed, Ohio-bred indie rock quintet’s fifth full-length album navigates that lonely dirt road where swagger meets desperation like a seasoned tour guide, and while it may take a few songs to get going, there are treasures to be found for patient passengers. You’re friends with the characters that inhabit these songs, if you’re not already one of them. Similar to “Beautiful Head,” “Cold Girl Fever” was predictive in that it contains many songwriting elements The National are known for. “Available”, “Cardinal Song”, and “Murder Me Rachael” appeared on setlists as recently as 2014, but the only cut off of Sad Songs you’re likely to hear today is “Lucky You”. “Sorrow Waited, Sorrow Won”: The National’s new record, I Am Easy to Find, closes on a plaintive note with the piano ballad “Light Years”. “And I would always be light years away from you.” The luscious strings and soft piano that bubble underneath Berninger’s vocals only augment the melancholic atmosphere. It’s musically where Sleep Well Beast falters. Some of the more experimental songs, such as “I’ll Still Destroy You” and “Guilty Party”, successfully marry electronic elements to The National’s signature brand of brooding, while others, such as “Walk It Back” and the title track, aren’t interesting enough to justify their length. As the story goes, back in 2017, the band was still fully focused on the release of their last album, “Sleep Well Beast,” when they received an email from director Mike Mills (Beginners,” “20th Century Women”). It’s musically where Sleep Well Beast falters. It has the makings of a tragedy, but it’s spiked by some of Berninger’s most brutally funny lyrics, including telling his friend: “You could have been a legend, but you became a father.” By the end of the song, even he doesn’t want to hear his buddy’s fantasies: “Dear, we better get a drink in you before you start to bore us.” It holds up pretty well musically, too, a punchy, chiming track that builds to a raucous, screamed climax in its final minute. “Sorrow Waited, Sorrow Won” (Saddest Song): Although every song from The National is sorrowful to some degree, the narrative of cubicle misery in “Theory of the Crows” digs deepest into dismay.

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