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Thursday, May 23, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS
“Remember when you lost your
shit and / Drove the car into the gar-
den / You got out and said I’m sorry /
To the vines and no one saw it,” The
National’s frontman Matt Berninger
sings on “I Need My Girl” from Trou-
ble Will Find Me (2013). This is the
kind of song The National became
famous for: It creates sentiment
through pared-down specificity, and
then it breaks your heart as you sud-
denly imagine the garden, the girl
apologizing to the vines and the ach-
ing desire fed by this memory. 2019’s
I Am Easy to Find incorporates these
defining strengths of The National
into new methods of storytelling and
lyrical preoccupations, suggesting
that it’s possible for a band to mature
without losing its musical philosophy.
Prior to I Am Easy to Find, The
National spent seven albums creating
a sound that can best be described by
the title of their sophomore effort: Sad
Song for Dirty Lovers. The National
should be playing while you sit alone
at a bar, feeling full of indecipherable
emotion, or as you look out a window
and think about people you used to
be in love with. I Am Easy to Find
explores a set of situations less excit-
ing and more obscured than anguish
and melancholia. While some songs
(“Quiet Light,” for instance) fall back
on old themes, the album largely
explores new territory. I Am Easy to
Find is about what it might mean to
stay in a romantic relationship, for
both the partnership itself and the
individuals involved.
I Am Easy to Find begins with a
jangly cacophony on “You Had Your
Soul With You,” the opening bars
of which are vaguely reminiscent of
Animal Collective or w h o k i l l-era
Tune-Yards. Then Berninger croons,
“You had your soul with you / I was in
no mood / Drift away, and I could for-
get / I had only one last feather left / I
wore it on the island of my head,” and
it becomes clear that The National
has not lost its way. This song shows
the band is not afraid to experiment,
though this is one of the only exam-
ples of a drastically new energy on the
album.
Songs like “Oblivions” retain
familiar vocals and instrumentation,
while lyrics chart an unexplored
motif: the weight of commitment in
a long-term relationship. “It’s the way
you say yes when I ask you to marry
me / You don’t know what you are
doing / Do you think you can carry me
/ Over the threshold / Over and over
again until oblivion?” This song, like
most on I Am Easy to Find, features a
woman’s voice alternately driving the
narrative or responding to Berninger.
The album was a joint effort between
77 musicians, including some of the
band members’ wives, who contrib-
uted both lyrics and vocals.
The inclusion of women’s per-
spectives is what blows the album
wide open, providing context and
counter-arguments for the careful,
self-deprecating, sad-boy protagonist
of previous albums. On some songs,
Berninger can barely be heard, and
it’s gratifying to imagine these tracks
as explanations by the women in the
relationships The National has been
singing about for all these years.
I Am Easy to Find is also the first
multimedia effort by The National;
a short film of the same name was
made in conjunction with the album
and directed by Mike Mills, the man
behind “20th Century Women”
(2016). In this “I Am Easy to Find,”
Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”)
convincingly portrays a woman’s life
from birth to death without chang-
ing her appearance. This life happens
within a consistently imagined black-
and-white world, and I Am Easy to
Find provides a soundtrack that con-
tributes to this sense of containment
through painstaking and intuitive
attention to the film’s emotional inte-
rior. While watching the film is not
necessary for appreciating I Am Easy
to Find, it does provide a satisfying
application of the album’s themes to
a carefully thought-out visual narra-
tive.
2019 has proven quite the roll-
ercoaster of nostalgia for mille-
nials. It started with Vampire
Weekend’s most recent release
and continued in a ragged path,
making the occasional stop for
the comebacks of artists like
the Jonas Brothers, and now, a
revisiting of both Batman and
the “Twilight” series. (I’m look-
ing at you, Rob.)
It’s a crazy time for pop cul-
ture, as the things that colored
our youth slowly come back to
play. Along this wild ride was
electronic act Passion Pit’s stop
at the Royal Oak Music The-
ater last Thursday, as front-
man
Michael
Angelakos per-
formed
their
debut album for
its tenth anni-
versary.
It’s
hard to believe
it’s
been
10
years since the
release of mem-
orable hits like
“Moth’s Wings”
and
“Sleepy-
head” on Manners,
the
album
that
cemented Angelakos’s soaring
falsetto into the musical con-
sciousness of millions. And yet,
the songs have marinated with
time, taking on new meaning in
the wake of a decade of momen-
tous change.
Angelakos has had a rough
run in the last few years, begin-
ning with a divorce and con-
tinuing with a struggle against
mental illness. The artist has
been outspoken about his bat-
tle with bipolar disorder, one
that spurred him to form “The
Wishart Group,” an organiza-
tion offering medical and legal
services to musicians with a
special emphasis on mental
health. Beyond these steps to
help others, Angelakos has been
increasingly transparent about
his own journey in interviews
and on social media, something
that did not change for the live
show.
“When we finished our last
tour, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able
to tour again,” the singer admit-
ted, sitting at the front of the
stage drenched in sweat. He
adjusted his tie and stood. “But
I made it, and this has been an
incredible
experience.”
The
crowd screamed in support and
Angelakos stood on the moni-
tors, looking out into the sea of
people clapping and jumping.
The look in his eyes was one of
the deepest gratitude I’ve ever
seen, something that made an
already frenetic show even more
profound. Passion Pit’s music is
a euphoric synthesis of life, and
Angelakos knows this better
than anyone. Understanding the
meaning behind the music made
it all the more
special for those
in
the
audito-
rium.
The show was
a spectacle, but
on simple terms:
The band was laid
in low light at the
back of the stage,
accentuating
Angelakos’ high-
energy
perfor-
mance with colored
sparks. He was con-
stantly running across the stage,
only pausing to take time during
the most popular songs — namely,
ones from Manners and the band’s
sophomore album Gossamer. In
these pauses, he connected with
the audience on a deeper level,
singing directly to those in the
front row.
Angelakos was clad in his sig-
nature show gear, consisting of
a shirt, tie and slacks that might
seem better suited for an office
than a stage. But this appear-
ance was part of the experience
at large, in a different way. The
frontman showed the audience
that he was one of us, sweat drip-
ping down his white oxford in a
hazy celebration of life. It was as
if he had just gotten off work and
decided to dance his heart out: a
situation for which Passion Pit’s
music is absolutely perfect.
Looking for The National
on LP ‘I Am Easy to Find’
MIRIAM FRANCISCO
Daily Arts Writer
I Am Easy to Find
The National
4AD
Read more at michigandaily.com
Passion Pit brims
with joy, energy
CLARA SCOTT
Senior Arts Editor
It was as if he
had just gotten
off work and
decided to dance
his heart out
ALBUM REVIEW
CONCERT REVIEW
4AB