The National’s frontman releases his second solo album.

It seems bizarre to think that around 2021 Matt Berninger was stuck in the worse writer’s block of his career. Nothing was working. He considered walking away from music forever. Eventually the dam burst and The National produced not one, but two albums in 2023. Now less than 2 years later comes a second solo album, though the seeds of many of these tracks go back to the pandemic before the lethargy set in. Now he seemingly cannot stop working and producing new material.

This album opens up a lot of questions about who does what when The National get together to write an album. National guitarist Aaron Dessner has worked with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Gracie Abrams, Fred Again, Girl in Red, Sharron Van Etten and Brian Eno in recent years (amongst many others). Lyrically there is of course plenty of continuity as Berninger writes the majority of The National’s lyrics. There are a lot of National style musical tricks as well, the opening of ‘No Love’ instantly recalls ‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.’ ‘Bonnet of Pins’ could absolutely have been a very strong single for the band as well.

Basically, any fan of The National is going to be more than happy with this collection of tunes. It slightly begs the question of why this collection ended up as a solo album. There are a few moments of difference, some of the tracks are vocally even more freewheeling and rambling than you would normally expect of Berninger. This is most noticeable on ‘Nowhere Special.’ Perhaps, given how busy all the members of the band are with various projects, Berninger just had the urge to record and didn’t want to wait. The current tour seems to very much be about having fun and doing what he enjoys. There have been all sorts of cover versions popping up including Radiohead, New Order and Nirvana.

The album disappears into some deep wells of emotion. ‘Frozen Oranges’ makes a fairly normal morning sound like a spiritual experience. ‘Breaking Into Acting’ features lovely support from Hand Habits, aka Meg Duffy. Ronboy, aka Julia Laws turns up on ‘Silver Jeep’ having previously helped on Berninger’s first solo album.

This is a high-quality album. Berninger takes you into a fully formed world and holds you there for the full 43 minutes. Could it have been elevated further as the basis of an album for The National? Probably, but whilst we are waiting for the next time they get together this is a more than adequate and entertaining stopgap.