I set a goal in the last quarter of 2023 to branch out and listen to bands that aren’t normally on my playlist rotation. One band that kept showing up on my searches was The National. It helps that they dropped two new albums in 2023, so there’s plenty of new material to delve into and explore. In April 2023, the band released First Two Pages of Frankenstein, and in September, they dropped a surprise second album, Laugh Track. While the Grammy-winning band has been around for a quarter century, my exposure to their work has been limited over the years. This fall though, one song in particular kept playing on my SiriusXM Coffeehouse channel. I began to remember the title after I Shazamed it for the fourth or fifth time. ”The Alcott,” a duet with Taylor Swift, hooked me. Since then, I’ve been hearing The National more and more as I channel surf. Their acoustic indie sound connected to me and my recent moods. I also love how these guys who have been around for nearly 25 years have tapped into some of the hottest talent from today’s airwaves with their collaborations with the likes of Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Sufjan Stevens, and Bon Iver. So, I’ve chosen a twofer from these two latest albums, First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track.

“The Alcott” by The National (featuring Taylor Swift)

“Laugh Track” by The National (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)