The National | Laugh Track

4AD0679LP

17/10/23

Gatefold black double vinyl

The surprise companion to The National's April release ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’, ‘Laugh Track’ is the band’s most freewheeling, all-hands on-deck album in years.

If ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’ represented a rebuilding of trust between group members after20+ years together, the vibrant, exploratory ‘Laugh Track’ is both the product of that faith and a new statement of intent.

Revelling in the license to radically upend its creative process, The National honed most of this material in live performances on tour and captured those invigorated versions in impromptu sessions at producer Tucker Martine’s Portland studio.

Two nights later in Vancouver, the nearly eight minute album closer ‘Smoke Detector’ was recorded during soundcheck, completing a body of work bristling with spontaneity and vintage rock energy that makes a perfect complement to the songs found on its more introspective predecessor.

Tracklisting

Alphabet City
Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces)
Weird Goodbyes feat. Bon Iver
Turn off the House
Dreaming
Laugh Track feat. Phoebe Bridgers
Space Invader
Hornets
Coat on a Hook
Tour Manager
Crumble feat. Rosanne Cash
Smoke Detector