Just five months after The First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, The National is already coming out with a follow-up. As the nearly identical covers suggest, this is material that the New Yorkers wrote largely at the same time. Laugh Track was recorded later - after the Frankenstein tour - and sounds looser and more varied than its rather moody predecessor. This is not so much in the rather predictable
… contributions of Bon Iver (Weird Goodbyes) and the almost inevitable Phoebe Bridgers (the title track). But woozy in that of Rosanne Cash; her voice in the country-tinged outlier Crumble blends beautifully with that of Matt Berninger. Then we are already near the end of the somewhat long, otherwise mostly familiar-sounding Laugh Track, but the biggest surprise is yet to come. Smoke Detector - written during a sound check and immediately an attraction during recent National concerts - unrolls into an almost eight-minute jam session, full of growling guitars and an unleashed Berninger. It suggests that at least The National's next album will not be The Next Two Pages Of Frankenstein. (RME)more
