7 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