The National is about to release its seventh album, Sleep Well Beast, which deepens and evolves the band's gloomily propulsive sound while digging deeper into the worried mind of singer Matt Berninger. Until today, three songs from the record had seeped out in the lead-up to release day — "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness," "Carin at the Liquor Store" and "Guilty Party" — and now "Day I Die" joins them, accompanied by an innovative new video from director Casey Reas.
"Day I Die" beautifully captures The National's gift for sounding both reflective and soaring, and Reas' video reflects its tone using more than 5,000 photographs — arrayed to form a time-lapse vision of a night in the life of the Ohio-bred band as it rehearses and performs onstage.
Sleep Well Beast comes out Sept. 8 via 4AD. On Sept. 5, NPR Music and WXPN's World Cafe will present a First Listen Live stream, in which The National performs the album in its entirety.
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