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The National Prospect Park Brooklyn 06172014 57

The National bring the guitars on bluesy new teaser

10 May 2017, 09:23 | Written by Laurence Day

The National sent the Internet into a meltdown with their apparent return yesterday, and they're stoking the anticipation with another new teaser - again with new music.

Instead of the Radioheady vibes of the first clip, this one's got feral guitar licks and a propulsive beat - it doesn't really sound like the first preview at all, so - and we're making a leap here - either it's one mammoth opus of a single that takes some massive unexpected twists, or it's this long-awaited album they've been working on for years. A new release would follow 2013's exceptional Trouble Will Find Me.

The National have been away a fair while, with all the members pursuing other projects - Matt Berninger's EL VY, Bryce Dessner's orchestral work, Invisible Bridge, plus Scott and Bryan Devendorf's LNZNDRF expedition to name just a few. The National as a unit have also dropped a few morsels into the ether, such as the mammoth A Lot Of Sorrow and Sharon Van Etten collab "Sunshine On My Back"; they also contributed to last year's Grateful Dead tribute and this year's titanic Bob's Burgers release

Back in 2014 the band's Scott Devendorf told us a bit about their plans for their seventh LP: "I think this time, personally, we've talked about doing some more writing as a band. There's definitely a desire to. We tend to write in isolation and come together to fit bits together. We should harness the time we've spent playing together as a band. We did this a little bit on Trouble Will Find Me, just playing together as a band versus recording in isolation and adding and stripping away. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't, but we want to capture the band energy for a more direct recorded sound. Not so much orchestration. At least initially... we've slowly been easing away from the grand orchestration, though we do like it..."

The National have a few live dates in the chamber for this summer, including Pitchfork Paris and Glastonbury.

The band's Bryce Dessner is currently gearing up to release collaborative LP Planetarium with Sufjan Stevens, James McAlister, and Nico Muhly. We've got five pairs of tickets to give away for an exclusive listening party in London next week - find out more.
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