The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 — 5
Arts
4AD
The National’s newest
testifies to age, memory
The first time I heard The
National I was sitting in my
dad’s car. We had just left
Barnes & Noble, where he
had spent hours
pouring over the
music and video
section,
making
careful selections,
then
returning,
then
selecting
again. It was a
time when Barnes
& Noble’s vast supply of albums
in countless genres still served
a purpose; it was a time before
iTunes streamed and Spotify
robbed. You had to use the
scanners propped up next to a
pair of headphones to listen to a
preview of an album.
I don’t remember what my
winnings from the Barnes &
Noble trip were. But my dad’s
blasted through the speakers
on the drive home, the next
morning on the way to school,
the next week, month and so
on. When the first notes of High
Violet’s intro track “Terrible
Love” hit me, it was straight in
the chest. And as a result, the
songs and the album became
inescapable.
High Violet has carried me
through so much of my life.
It’s the record I play when I
want someone else to put words
to what I’m feeling, when I
want singer Matt Berninger’s
mumblings to carry me through
the day or the month or the
year. My sister would blast
“Bloodbuzz Ohio” every time
we hit the highway in Buffalo,
returning home after months
in Michigan. I carried my
record player into my room
on a shitty day last year and
played “Lemonworld” at top
volume until I fell asleep. Every
piece of it has attached itself
to my life in a different way,
and when the sad, sad months
of January and February make
their return once a year, I find
myself retreating back into its
cold hug.
But it’s not just High Violet;
it’s all of it. Boxer, Alligator,
Trouble Will Find Me, Cherry
Tree — piecing them together
is piecing together the last
two years of my life. So here
we are, on the precipice of my
third year with Berninger and
the Dessners with their newest
release, Sleep Well Beast. Here
we are with something different
and something brilliant. From
Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
to now, the band has aged —
they’re in their forties now —
and they’ve perfected.
It’s all in the music. What
are these synthy sounds on
“Walk It Back” and the chorus
at the start of “The System
Always Dreams in Darkness”?
The smooth, sad perfection
they once curated has been
pushed a step further and has
taken a step back. This record
finds
producer,
keyboardist
and guitarist Aaron Dessner at
his most experimental — synth
progressions ease us into the
third track with sporadic static
leading us out, and we pause,
greeted only by a harmony at
the start of “The System.” Not
to mention “Turtleneck,” a
song that sticks out from the
rest of the record in its bluesy
aggression and dueling guitars.
But then, there’s a step back.
It has been a while since we’ve
heard the band do rock ‘n’ roll.
The drum and electric heavy
sound of Boxer and Alligator
have finally returned to us after
the melancholy of High Violet
and Trouble Will
Find Me.
Yet
Berninger
is still brooding.
It’s
easy
to
dismiss
The
National as a sad
band, but it’s more
accurate to say
they’re a reflective one. Their
songs and music present easily
interchangeable reflections on
their personal lives as well as
our current political climate.
Sleep Well Beast, after all, was
co-written
with
Berninger’s
wife Carin Besser. Events that
unfold over the course of the
songs like “Guilty Party” and
“Carin at the Liquor Store”
concern real and fictionalized
accounts of their relationship.
But they also concern us and
the world. They concern real
and fake news.
In a recent interview with
The Atlantic, Berninger talked
about this specific overlap in
his songs: “Politics is personal.
I don’t understand why people
separate love and politics in
their art — and I don’t know who
does. We don’t expect people
who write novels to be like,
‘Oh, this chapter is the political
chapter and over here is the
love chapter.’ Somewhere along
the line, musicians felt it was
uncool to be political. It never
made any sense to me. Who’s
cooler than Nina Simone?”
There is an inescapable tie
between love and politics in
these songs. Most evidently,
this is heard on “Walk It Back”
which has a soundcut of Lisa
Hannigan reciting a quote from
a New York Times interview
with an unamed Bush aide
(later named as Karl Rove)
about the Bush administration.
“We’re history’s actors,” he
says. Rove and Bush in the big
office,
they’re
creating
the
reality. The rest of us are meant
to sit out in the dirt and await
their decisions. While Rove
adamantly denies the quote
(and The National has already
called him out via Twitter), the
point still remains clear. “Walk
It Back” is the stuff of “Fake
Empire”
—
simultaneously
the
story
of
a
collapsing
relationship paralleled by a
collapsing
political
reality
just as “Fake Empire” was a
ravishing political commentary
yet at the same time a drinking
song.
Once again, we are presented
with fiction and nonfiction,
the dissolution of an unknown
relationship next to inescapable
political and social realities.
But there is no love lost, only
words. Like in “Guilty Party,” a
song chronicling the inevitable
spiraling
of
a
relationship
where one member is simply
left with no anger, no blame,
simply nothing left to say. And
the same goes for “Dark Side
of the Gym,” Sleep Well Beast’s
uncontestable love song. Even
this one dissolves into silence:
“There was still nothing I could
say,” he sings.
But what is the final tie
between
the
real
and
the
unreal, what we create in the
physical world and what solely
exists in our minds? Sleep,
dreams and their unruliness
is what Berninger seems to
suggest. But we seem to forget
that self-medication applies to
sleeping pills and substance
abuse; this is the premise of “I’ll
Still Destroy You.” It carries us
through various states of mind
from alcohol and drugs to sleep
and sex. “I’ll Still Destroy You”
and “Sleep Well Beast” are
sisters in this regard. As the
songs progress, we progress
through
various
states
of
Berninger — an inebriated one,
a sober one, a pill wrecked one,
a tired one. But while “Destroy
You” builds up into a crescendo
of noise, “Sleep Well Beast”
dissolves into silence. “Sleep
Well Beast” has a conclusion;
“Destroy You” remains restless.
You can take The National’s
songs and make mansions or
sandcastles out of them. Just
as “Turtleneck” can build you
up, “Empire Line” can tear you
down. “Day I Die” will pull and
push you forward, but Aaron
Dessner on the piano in “Carin
at the Liquor Store” will be the
sand that slips through your
fingers. Because in the same
way I can string together the
last two years of my life, you
can piece together their records
as a whole, and songs from
records released years apart.
Just as “Day I Die” is an answer
to the preceding track “Nobody
Else Will Be There,” “Guilty
Party” invariably reminds one
of the tragedy that is “Pink
Rabbits” and “Carin” responds
to “Karen.” These albums tell
the story of Berninger’s, the
Dessners’ and the Devendorfs’
lives. This album tells the story
of love, loss, struggle, insecurity
and time that is running out.
I’ve felt for a while that time
is running out for me. My life is
careening toward another end,
another finale come May of this
year. And I’m utterly terrified.
But Sleep Well Beast, just as it
strings together bits and pieces
of these men’s lives, it strings
together my own. “Walk It
Back” keeps playing over and
over again in my mind whether
or not I have headphones on
because of Berninger mumbling
“I can’t stay and I can’t come
back.” And I’m simply left
thinking about Buffalo and Ann
Arbor and how the familiar
crescendos
of
“Bloodbuzz
Ohio” won’t be heard on the
highway back home for a long,
long time. It’s the endings of all
ends, the time when the fictions
of college meet the reality of
the world. So here’s to The
National, seeing me out.
NATALIE ZAK
Managing Arts Editor
Sleep Well
Beast
The National
4AD
ALBUM REVIEW
NETFLIX
Latest ‘Narcos’ delivers
despite change of focus
As one of its first original
series, Netflix brought the
story
of
legendary
drug
kingpin
Pablo
Escobar
to
the
small-screen
through
“Narcos.”
After
wrapping
up Escobar’s exploits in two
seasons, “Narcos”
faced the daunting
task
of
entirely
remodeling
a
show
that
was
built
around
Wagner
Moura’s
(“Elysium”)
terrifying
performance as Escobar. With
its third season, not only has
“Narcos”
succeeded
in
its
tough assignment, but it has
also produced a sleeker show
with a more diverse cast.
Already a quality series, the
sharp third installment of
“Narcos” continues the show’s
run of success.
One of the most glaring
issues with the show’s first
two seasons was the constant
narration by protagonist Steve
Murphy
(Boyd
Holbrook,
“Logan”). Holbrook’s drawling
voiceover
always
sounded
slightly different from how
his character spoke in the
series — not to mention that
the first season’s narration
was incessant. With Holbrook
written out of the series at the
end of the second season, his
co-star Pedro Pascal (“Game of
Thrones”) takes over narrative
duties in this new “Narcos”
season.
The result is a voiceover that
is significantly less distracting
and
annoying,
though
“Narcos” does continue to
struggle with spoonfeeding
its plot to viewers. While the
voiceover is necessary at times,
the series still goes overboard
with its exposition. In a prime
example of this unnecessary
narration,
this
season’s
premiere
episode
—
“The
Kingpin Strategy” — features
Pascal describing the Cali
Cartel’s
business
practices.
Although “Narcos” highlights
Cali’s
professional
way
of
doing business throughout the
episode, Pascal’s voiceover still
hands viewers these scenes
through narration, with Pascal
detailing
how,
“It was fucking
Cocaine,
Incorporated.
And they ran it
like a Fortune
500 company.”
Despite
its
voiceover
drawbacks,
“Narcos”
successfully
blends
history
and fiction. The series aptly
writes
in
historical
drug
traffickers
throughout
its
plotlines and intersperses clips
of news anchors like Walter
Cronkite
and
Dan
Rather
discussing
these
figures.
Compared to show’s constant
narration, these clips better
convey information to viewers
and also provide an intriguing
perspective into how these
traffickers
were
perceived
when they were active in the
mid-1990s.
Using
historical
traffickers
also
enables
“Narcos” to draw upon real-
world events for inspiration,
which helps to deepen the
universe
into
something
resembling
a
documentary
more than a drama.
In
Season
Three,
“Narcos” brings in a host
of new characters — and
re-introduces several old ones
— that work well on-screen,
with the so-called four “Cali
Godfathers”
providing
the
show with new energy and
diversity.
While
Moura
unquestionably impressed in
his role as Escobar in seasons
one and two, having a single
antagonist somewhat limited
the series’s ability to develop
a distinct type of villain, with
Escobar’s cruelty defining his
tenure on “Narcos.”
However,
in
this
latest
season, the series has four
leaders of the Cali Cartel
upon
which
to
focus
—
Gilberto Rodríguez (Damián
Alcázar, “El Narco”), Miguel
Rodríguez (Francisco Denis,
“The
Liberator”),
Pacho
Herrera
(Alberto
Ammann,
“Cell 211”) and “Chepe” (Pêpê
Rapazote, “Shameless”), all of
whom give “Narcos” a more
interesting cast. As exciting as
Escobar was, he was singular
in his viciousness, unlike the
“Cali Godfathers” who label
themselves
the
“Gentlemen
of Cali” and are less prone to
violence. This is one of the most
intriguing and ironic aspects
of the show’s new season,
since drug traffickers are often
defined by their bloodshed and
sadism. Despite coming at the
expense of some of the series’s
non-stop action, this transition
will help “Narcos” carve out a
new identity in post-Escobar
seasons.
Although
most
of
the
series’s new cast excels, two of
the new DEA agents flop badly.
Working with Pascal, new
agents Chris Feistl (Michael
Stahl-David,
“Cloverfield”)
and Daniel Van Ness (Matt
Whelan, “Go Girls”) struggle
to
develop
chemistry
and
often come off as oblivious
and incompetent. Feistl looks
and sounds almost like a worse
version of Murphy, whereas
Whelan
seems
entirely
miscast in his role. As much
as Murphy struggles during
his two seasons on “Narcos,”
he was nowhere near as out-
of-place as Feistl or Whelan.
If that’s the worst thing about
the show’s third installment
though, then it must be a
strong season.
IN NEW YORK, PLAYBOI CARTI
MILLY ROCKS. IN ANN ARBOR,
NERDS WRITE ARTICLES ABOUT
CARTI MILLY ROCKING. BECOME
ONE OF THOSE NERDS
E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for an application
to join our section
CONNOR GRADY
Daily Arts Writer
“Narcos”
Netflix
Season 3 Premiere
TV REVIEW
You can take
The National’s
songs and make
mansions or
sandcastles out of
them