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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

