The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein (4AD): Album Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The National  The title of their ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein alerts us to their literary and art-as-rock’n’roll sensibilities. This aligns them with Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. And Nick Cave if you insist.

Grief, loss and the quest for salvation and redemption through suffering are over-arching themes.

There are clues in the title. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote the novel after a bet between her poet lover Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, as to who could write the best horror story. Her effort as an eighteen-year-old became a foundation stone for literature. It was as prescient and insightful into human nature as Shakespeare.

Frankenstein was not the monster. He was a young genius scientist, who was coping with the loss of loved ones and the ensuing all-consuming grief. In attempting to create the perfectly realized human, he ended up unleashing the creature from the Id.

There is this sense of dread from which the beauty and redemption arise that that is suffused throughout the album.

Matt Berninger, lead singer explains how he had come to a writer’s block after their last studio album I Am Easy To Find (2019).

‘Grabbed a book off the shelf and from those first 600 words, the muse was let out of the dungeon again. He was able to use the tensions between the band to let his inner lyricist out.’

Previously, he has explained that the other members come up with the essential rhythms and melody lines first, and he follows with the words. Multi-instrumentalists Aaron Dressner and Bryce Dressner, Bryan Devendorf drums and Scott Devendorf bass.

The core is Your Mind is not Your Friend. Your imagination is an awful place. That’s Mary Shelley. The novel starts in the Arctic where grief and mental horror have become frozen in place. It suggests the dichotomy of the only two tragedies in life. Not getting what you want, and getting what you want. Interesting that it’s placed as the penultimate song on the album, as it wallows in the depths of self-pity.

That song has harmony vocals from Phoebe Bridger who also appears on This Isn’t Helping. Berninger does his best Lou Reed phrasing here, coming straight out of Street Hassle the song. He is the detached observer as he sings maybe in time, we can give it one more try.

The most cinematic is The Alcot, co-written by Taylor Swift, who lends her nice breathy harmony vocals. A story of literary soulmates who have detached but find themselves being led back by love. A soundtrack for the superb Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Tropic Morning News and Alien has a metronome mama heartbeat rhythm. From there the music rises in subtle tones into a brighter pop context.

Ice Machine has a folkie acoustic guitar lead into a Damon Runyon style short story. I don’t need your ice machines/ Don’t need your high-end speaker systems/ Don’t need your forgiveness. The melody lines sparkle.

Eucalyptus is a song of relationship break-up. They are dividing up the possessions to reflect the pain of separation. What about the “Cowboy Junkies”? / What about the “Afghan Whigs”? / You should take it/ As I’m not gonna take. The music is galloping across the plains of freedom. Maybe they will Break Up to Make Up like the Stylistics.

They follow that with a great ringing guitar and keyboard drone as Berninger sings you’re in my New Order t-shirt.

Closing song Send for Me wraps it all up. At the airport, parting in the physical sense but not in spirit. Presence is eternal despite separation.

The National with First Two Pages of Frankenstein will sound like a downer at first, singing the same song repeatedly, to the uninitiated. The large fan base will love it.

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Rev Orange Peel

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