The National - Tropic Morning News

The National
Tropic Morning News

The National are seasoned architects of masterful and moving melancholia. ‘Tropic Morning News’ doesn’t reinvent the wheel, however, it solidifies a band at the peak of its craft.

Following what felt like a victory lap with their invigorating headline set at last year’s All Points East, their new material, has an essence of a band, who have emerged from the darkest corners of their mind, renewed with a triumphant glow.

A point seemingly solidified by frontman Matt Berninger, who wrote the track alongside wife Carin Besser. It was Besser who invented the title phrase which she created to describe the routine practice of doomscrolling. That phrase ‘unlocked something’ in Berninger he says, stating “It became a song about having a hard time expressing yourself, and trying to connect with someone when the noise of the world is drowning out any potential for conversation.”

Berninger captures this all perfectly in the chorus 

“I was so distracted then / I didn't have it straight in my head / I didn't have my face on yet or the role or the feel / Of where I was going with it all / I was suffering more than I let on / The tropic morning news was on / There's nothing stopping me now / From saying all the painful parts out loud”.

When The National released their last record, 2019’s ‘I Am Easy To Find’ it was hard to even picture the events the world would be enraptured by over the following years. ‘Tropic Morning News’ feels like a revelation as it perfectly encaptures the dread of following COVID statistics and polling results to an unhealthy religious extent. But much more than that, it evokes positivity, an ability to pull ourselves away from the dread and focus on the people closest to us. 

That’s what The National do best, they manage to put into incredibly moving words and sensational instrumentation, the feelings we find ourselves struggling to grapple with and even understand. 

Tropic Morning News is out now on all streaming platforms. The National’s new album ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’ is due April 28th on 4AD.