On their seventh album, the men of The National go on a dark and melancholic tour again. They continue the line of their previous albums (2010) and (2013) without changing much. Some more abstract sounds can be heard and the approach is a bit more bare than on previous work. Sleep Well Beast is not a cheerful album, but it contains a lot of beautiful things. From gloomy and sensitive songs to
… sharp and raw songs, the beauty comes in many forms on Sleep Well Beast. Often intimate and sometimes a bit bigger. Or the band around frontman - who with his voice incites extra gloom - ever lets the printed edge slide off him, seems less and less likely. If it produces albums with such a beautiful atmosphere as this one, that's totally fine. (JvQ)more
