One of the many awful effects of the coronavirus pandemic is how it has confirmed, for many of us, the nagging and perennial fear that things will never be as good as they once were. The virus still circulates, but the past few years contained a hard before and after, demarcated by lost lives and years and possibilities. We’re older and sadder, and there’s no going back. How do we move forward?
No work of art has hit me with the weight of that question like the new album from the National has. The indie-rock band finds itself, 22 years after its debut album, at the height of its influence. Taylor Swift counts its members—especially the multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner—as collaborators and inspirations. Their renown is so great that they were able to attract their own heroes, Patti Smith and Pavement, to play the band’s festival in their hometown of Cincinnati last weekend. Laugh Track, the National’s second album of 2023, was crafted while the band toured sold-out arenas. Yet it is also heavy—beautifully heavy—with concerns of decline.
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