The National
I Am Easy To Find

Try listening to a random song by the National. Well, from the very first notes you'll think: yes, these are the National. In twenty years of career, the band has managed to create a unique style, a successful trademark that everyone immediately recognizes. This is the strength of the National, this is what has made them one of the most iconic rock bands of this early century.
From a small independent band that only we listened to in our bedrooms, they gradually became a band whose songs were broadcast in TV series and commercials, ultimately ending up even on the most commercial radio stations. And every time the National announces a new album, the anticipation is always frenzied: the hype grows and the curiosity to hear the new songs makes us impatient. Then, when the release date of the album finally arrives, there it is: that unmistakable melody, that familiar voice. Here is that sound that we all waited for and wanted to hear.

I Am Easy To Find is the eighth album by Matt Berninger's band, and it comes at that point in their career when the National can afford a more daring, more choral album, less about rock anthems and more about confessional opera. For the first time on the record, we hear many female voices, alongside Matt’s baritone. For the first time, we hear an entire classical choir, songs where Matt is almost a mere background voice, musical openings that the National had never explored before.
In the previous album, Sleep Well Beast, Matt was alone confronting the demons of life. He was alone telling us about his troubled, dark, and melancholic sentimental situation. In this new I Am Easy To Find, however, Matt is supported by a universe of voices, uplifted by many friendly hands.
The warm voice of Gail Ann Dorsey can be found in the opening track “You Had Your Soul With You,” and we will hear it again in other pieces throughout the tracklist. Then there’s Sharon Van Etten in “The Pull Of You,” and Lisa Hannigan in the long “So Far So Fast.”

Musically, in this album, the band combines the sounds of all previous records, gathering the best of their past achievements to handle and reshape them in this I Am Easy To Find, which is undoubtedly the National's most daring record.
“Quiet Light,” for example, seems to continue the discourse initiated in the previous 2017 album. A subdued ballad accompanied by a sad piano and Matt still grappling with his troubled, failed marriage. “I’m just so tired of thinking about everything / I’m not afraid of being alone,” sings Matt while faint electronic sounds counterpoint his enveloping and melancholic voice.
“Roman Holiday,” on the other hand, is gentle and dark, seeming to come straight from the Boxer period (released in 2007). A track with more prominent drumming, piano just barely touched with fingers, a dark aura hovering over Matt’s voice, and the female voice providing a contrasting warm intimacy.
One of my favorite tracks is “Rylan,” which reminds me a lot of the songs from Trouble Will Find Me (the National album I'm most attached to and love immensely, released in 2013). Here, refined and emotive rock dominates, deep and pervaded by a formidable introspection.
The concluding and delicate “Light Years” instead carries the elegant pop style of the High Violet period (from 2010), becoming the only potential anthem, the potential hit of this album.

The lyrics of Matt Berninger are always beautiful poems. They are contemporary literature, telling with a modern touch the everyday life. Matt writes lyrics that are sometimes harsh, violent, and creates imagery with just a few phrases. A descriptive and powerful writing style that lets our imagination travel besides moving us.
An example of this is the incredible “Not In Kansas,” perhaps the most ambitious and daring song of this new album. Reading the lyrics, it seems like having a Leonard Cohen story in your hands. It’s like flipping through the pages of a Donna Tartt novel. A long poem full of quotations, detailed images of an America that Matt finds confining, in which Matt no longer feels safe.

You even get to wear a dress
And feed his flesh to wayward daughters
Everyone is so impressed
Teachers, neighbors, and mothers, fathers
First Testament was really great
The sequel was incredible
Like the Godfathers or the first two Strokes.

[…]

I always wake up way before the weather
My mother needs an army
But I’m leaving home and I’m scared that I won’t
Have the balls to punch a Nazi
Father, what is wrong with me?

I Am Easy To Find is not an easy record. It needs to be approached calmly, dissecting each of the sixteen tracks with delicate slowness. Layer by layer, song by song, you enter the album and can no longer get out. It must be savored, like a vintage wine. It must be enjoyed in sips, so as to perceive every slightest nuance, every slightest sound, every small detail of this complex and beautiful album.
Once inside, however, I Am Easy To Find becomes a treasure. A multi-layered, multi-dimensional treasure that can only be appreciated after having penetrated each individual layer. Music, lyrics, voices and countervoices, guitars, pianos, drums, and strings must be thoroughly explored to understand how beautiful and daring this album is.
One must abandon oneself to I Am Easy To Find. One must let oneself be captured, entwined, and must get lost and let the notes and words show the way out.
The National once again prove they are the best, a rock band without labels and without limits. I Am Easy To Find moves and touches, amazes and fascinates. I Am Easy To Find is, once again, a grand and beautiful album by the National.