The National - Boxer

Ships within 5 - 7 working days

Anchored by evocative melodies and an enthralling lyrical narrative, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’ signals a thrilling new chapter in the band’s beloved discography. The 11-song album was produced by The National at Long Pond Studios in upstate New York and features guest appearances by Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens.

The follow-up to 2019’s top five hit album, ‘I Am Easy To Find’, ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’ was initially stalled while lead singer Matt Berninger navigated “a very dark spot where I couldn’t come up with lyrics or melodies at all, and that period lasted for over a year. Even though we’d always been anxious and argued quite a lot whenever we were working on a record, this was the first time it ever felt like maybe things really had come to an end.” Instead, The National “managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band,” according to guitarist / pianist Bryce Dessner, whose bandmates also include his brother Aaron (guitar / piano / bass) as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’ channels the group’s revitalized chemistry into a body of work that beautifully balances elegant musicality with The National’s more idiosyncratic impulses. Tracks such as ‘Grease In Your Hair’ and ‘Ice Machines’ were road tested in 2022 before they were recorded, allowing the band to hone the material in real time (another song, ‘Weird Goodbyes’, featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, was released as a standalone track last August). “To me the power of this record has to do with the intentionality and structure of the music meeting with a lot of accidental magic,” says Aaron Dessner.