Album art for The National's Trouble Will Find Me

The National

Trouble Will Find Me

Trouble Will Find Me feels like The National reaching the pinnacle of their sound with a nearly perfect album that’s as morose and captivating as the band themselves.

Everything The National has ever released is fantastic, but Trouble Will Find Me is possibly their best album yet. It’s like staring into the soul of a depressed man going through incredibly difficult life changes. I mean this is the best way possible, but if you’ve never heard them, The National perfectly captures the feeling of being so depressed that you want to stick your head in the oven and turn on the gas.

With Trouble Will Find Me, it really feels as if The National has taken this sound to its natural conclusion. It’s uncomfortably dark, which isn’t unusual for The National, but this is relentless, with nary a moment of joy to be found. What can come next? It feels as if The National has recorded their OK Computer, a record that pushes a certain style to the brink. Trouble Will Find Me’s biggest question isn’t about whether or not the album is any good — it’s probably the band’s best yet — but it does make me wonder what comes next for the band. (What will be their Kid A?)

The lead single, Demons, is an appropriately titled piece of melancholy. There are some numbers, like Sea of Love, that are different than anything they’ve done before. Not to mention that songs like Graceless are great live. You really owe it to yourself to check this record out.