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Aug 17, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Josh Goleman

The National have shared two new songs, “Alphabet City” and “Space Invader.” They follow the April release of the band’s latest album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, and are out now via 4AD. Listen to both songs below.

Read our review review of First Two Pages of Frankenstein here. Stream the album here.

The band features frontman Matt Berninger, as well as two sets of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar/piano/bass) and Bryce Dessner (piano, guitar), and Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

Previously the band shared First Two Pages of Frankenstein’s first single, “Tropic Morning News,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Then The National shared the album’s second single, “New Order T-Shirt,” and also started selling a joint National/New Order T-shirt. “New Order T-Shirt” also made our Songs of the Week list. Then they shared its third single, “Eucalyptus,” via a music video. Then The National shared the album’s fourth single, “Your Mind is Not Your Friend,” which featured guest backing vocals by Phoebe Bridgers and was shared via a music video directed by Jackson Bridgers (Phoebe’s brother) and co-starring Tom Berninger (brother of Matt Berninger). Then they shared a lyric video for album’s biggest collaboration, “The Alcott,” which is a duet with Taylor Swift. They also performed “Eucalyptus” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. First Two Pages of Frankenstein also features Sufjans Stevens.

The National’s previous album, I Am Easy to Find, came out in 2019 via 4AD. Last year the band shared a new single, “Weird Goodbyes,” which was a collaboration with Bon Iver (the project led by Justin Vernon) but is not featured on the new album.

In a previous press release, Matt Berninger said that after I Am Easy to Find he found himself in “a very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all. Even though we’d always been anxious whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end.”

Bryce Dessner said that the band “managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band.”

Summing up First Two Pages of Frankenstein as a whole, Aaron Dessner said: “To me the power of this record has to do with the intentionality and structure of the music meeting with a lot of accidental magic.”

Read our 2018 interview with The National.

Read our 2017 interview with The National on Sleep Well Beast.

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