Matt Berninger
Get Sunk
★★★★
BOOK/CONCORD
Following the release of his debut solo record Serpentine Prison in 2020, Matt Berninger suffered a depressive slump that made the recording of the two subsequent National albums a testing period in which his bandmates helped to thaw him out of his frozen state.
The tellingly-titled Get Sunk was produced and partly co-written by the group’s engineer Sean O’Brien, and while there are shades of Berninger’s day band in the propulsive Nowhere Special, for the most part it’s a more laid-back affair in the stylistic vein of R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, or a country-tinged The Blue Nile. Standouts include the beautifully surreal Frozen Oranges (“in the trees in Indiana”), the sleepy bossa nova of Silver Jeep (a duet with LA’s Ronboy) and the message of mutual emotional support delivered in the closing Times Of Difficulty.
Get Sunk is out May 30 on Book/Concord
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Track Listing:
Inland Ocean
No Love
Bonnet Of Pins
Frozen Oranges
Breaking Into Acting Feat. Hand Habits
Nowhere Special
Little By Little
Junk
Silver Jeep Feat. Ronboy
Times Of Difficulty
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