First Two Pages of Frankenstein – The National ★★

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2023	First Two Pages of Frankenstein	The National	★★	45	Rock	Indie Rock	Chamber Pop

In a predictable but disappointingly safe move, The National opted to conform to the trends of modern indie music by creating a more stripped down, soft and slow style on First Two Pages of Frankenstein, the band’s ninth album and first record since 2019. 

After the success Aaron Dessner saw producing Taylor Swift’s two 2022 mega albums – Folklore and Evermore — and the elevated status the band received being featured on one of Swift’s tracks, I was scared the band would be drawn to continue down that creative road a little too much. 

It’s a smart move on paper to try to capture the attention of the ravenous fan base that follows everything Taylor Swift is associated with, as well as the diehards of other indie folk artists like Phoebe Bridgers who thrive on a similar sound. But it’s a different vibe when 20 and 30 year old women talk about heartbreak and millennial experiences over dreamy instrumentation compared to weathered veteran musicians in their 50s trying to relate to a more youthful crowd. And in doing so, the band completely abandoned any of the edge they had as a once pioneering band of the 2000s indie-rock movement. 

Did percussionist Bryan Devendorf’s arms fall off before they recorded the album? Where are the traditional driving drums and accented percussion notes that gave so many of The National’s best songs energy? Instead, it’s almost all programmed beats and electronic sounding production elements.  

“Tropic Morning News” a standard, upbeat single, but where are the others? “Grease in Your Hair” I guess is supposed to be the “rocker” on the album but is so subtle it hardly gets you moving. And “Alien” is too boring for too long to enjoy the upbeat payoff at the end.

The lyrics throughout are a cut under their usual high standard as well, with tracks like “Eucalyptus” leaning on repetitive imagery that paints pictures without much meaning or emotional attachment. The result is an album that feels redundant and tired musically and thematically. 

Some of songs are strong, like “New T Shirt,” and “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” but when the entire album is made up of acoustic tracks and piano ballads, it’s hard for the good moments to stand out like they usually do for The National. 

Which means the standout element is really supposed to be the contributions from the featured artists: Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens. But the trio seems to be included for name recognition only instead of bringing something refreshing or unique to the mix. 

There’s no reason not to add three stellar artists to an album if they’re wanting to be a part, but they easily could have been substituted in with no-name backup singers with little change in quality to the record. If you’re going to have Taylor Swift or Sufjan Stevens featured on the song, let them do the things only Taylor Swift or Sufjan Stevens can do. Instead, we get these fine, B- quality contributions that are more cool to have exist than interesting to listen to. 

I hate to give this 2 stars because I love The National and there isn’t anything that’s specifically bad on the album. But sometimes it’s worse to be offensively boring or disappointing than to just make bad music.