Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

The National – Sleep Well Beast

  • Dork
  • September 3, 2017
Label:
Released:
Rating:

The National - Sleep Well Beast

The National make magic out of the unpredictable.

Label: 4AD
Released: 8th September 2017
Rating: ★★★★

The National have long been celebrated as purveyors of introspection at its most heartfelt. Whether that’s something that draws you in or passes you by, there’s no shirking the band’s proficiency at what they do. Masters of melancholy and intimacy, the Ohio outfit have perfected the power to inspire the most earnest kind of emotion. Sure enough, with ‘Sleep Well Beast’ there’s a lot that remains true to form.

Stuttering into life, ‘Walk It Back’ sees the band at their most reflective. Matt Berninger, voice rich with emotion and heavy with the toll that takes, utters words of deprecation and resolved determination with shiver inducing proximity. Equal parts lingering affection and stoic resolve, ‘Guilty Party’ drives through brokenhearted emotion with no shortage of uncertainty, strident piano and shimmering synth lines a brave face in the wake of desperation.

Of course, it’s not all dark and brooding. ‘Dark Side Of The Gym’ meanders through its own affection with a sense of glimmering wonder it’s a struggle not to fall for – not that you’d want to fight it. Then there are moments that see the Ohio outfit shatter their mould completely. It’s these moments that make ‘Sleep Well Beast’ so vital. Expanding and evolving as they find new ways to endure, The National make magic out of the unpredictable.

Lead single ‘The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness’ boasts a guitar riff bolder and more brazen than anything the group have ever done before. From it’s rippling synth led introduction, ‘I’ll Still Destroy You’ rocks even harder than it rolls, percussion building and building until it takes control, pummelling through the speakers without restraint.

Then there’s album centrepiece ‘Turtleneck’. Here we find The National at their most ferocious – actually ferocious – with thundering refrains and vehemently spat lyrics that take the listener on a turbulent roller coaster ride of emotion frenetic enough to leave you physically reeling.

“I’m gonna keep you in love with me for a while,” Berninger croons on ‘Dark Side Of The Gym’. True to his words, ‘Sleep Well Beast’ is an album that will keep fans enamoured for a long time to come. Jessica Goodman

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Features

Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ is a love letter to the people who made his career what it is today – review

  • March 27, 2023
View Post
  • In Photos

Lovejoy triumphed at London’s Electric Brixton, and it looked like this

  • March 29, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Bimini shares first music of 2023 with ‘Rodeo’

  • March 25, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Thomas Headon is taking a new perspective on his latest single, ‘i loved a boy’
    • Features
    spill tab is expanding the universe in her mind with brand new bop ‘Window’
    • Music News
    Georgia has dropped her huge new track, ‘It’s Euphoric’, and announced a new album too
    • In Photos
    Lovejoy triumphed at London’s Electric Brixton, and it looked like this
    • Music News
    Nightbus wonder what the fuck they’re doing with new single, ‘Mirrors’

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.