Bleep

First, a little housekeeping: I Am Easy To Find, the eighth LP from The National, is being released concurrently with a short film of the same name. However, though they are twinned works, the I Am Easy To Find record and I Am Easy To Find movie are separate entities. If you want to get your hands on the OST for I Am Easy To Find then you’ll need to purchase the triple-vinyl edition.

I Am Easy To Find (the album) is a towering work, clocking in at sixteen songs and well over an hour of music. It is of a scale that befits a group who can legitimately claim to be one of the biggest rock acts currently working. It also boasts a serious guestlist - Gail Ann Dorsey, Lisa Hannigan, Sharon Van Etten, Mina Tindle and This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables all lend a hand at various points.

Album Opener ‘You Had Your Soul With You’ sets out the stall for the rest of I Am Easy To Find. The production is impressive and ambitious - drums clatter away in the background, strings swell and ebb, and guitars flit all around the mix. When combined with the song’s fragile and beautiful core, the overall effect is reminiscent of something off of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Other tracks - ‘Hairpin Turns’, ‘Light Years’ - maintain the tenderness of ‘You Had Your Soul With You’ while shifting the emphasis to the piano.

On this album The National balance their grand ideas with the modern Americana style they’ve got down to a fine art over the past couple of decades.