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The National - 'Sleep Well Beast' wins GRAMMY for Best Alternative Music Album
The National : 'Sleep Well Beast' wins GRAMMY for Best Alternative Music Album
29th January 2018

Today, The National was awarded a GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music Album category for their 2017 release Sleep Well Beast during The Recording Academy® 60th annual GRAMMY® Awards show.  While they were nominated in the same category for their last album, Trouble Will Find Me, this is the band’s first win.  Sleep Well Beast, with designers Luke Hayman and Andrea Trabucco-Campos of Pentagram, also received a nomination for Best Recording Package. 

“Thanks to the Recording Academy, Straight & Narrow management, our label 4AD and everyone who made a great record this year,” commented guitarist and producer Aaron Dessner.

You can buy from the 4AD Store here on LP/CD.
Find the album at your nearest indie record store here.
Buy and stream the album on the digital platform of your choice here

The National have established themselves as mainstays of arenas and festivals with sold-out performances and headlining slots around the world.  With the release of Sleep Well Beast, The National achieved their highest chart position in the US to date, coming in at #2 on the Billboard Top 200.  In addition they scored #1's in the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Canada.  The band received their highest chart position ever in a total of eleven countries.  The National also claimed their first #1 at commercial radio on the Triple-A radio chart with 'The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.'  The songs off Sleep Well Beast are instantly recognizable as The National, but their sound has evolved and expanded.  Sleep Well Beast is currently gracing best of 2017 lists around the globe.  “It was important that we genuinely explore new territory and risk falling on our faces, or not make a record at all,” explains guitarist and producer Aaron Dessner.  “This album feels complete to me."  

"The National's upcoming full-length, Sleep Well Beast, is shaping up to be the best album the band has done."NPR
"Elegant melancholia isn't enough for the National anymore. On its seventh album, Sleep Well Beast, its new songs have more rhythmic ferment and melodic crosscurrents; they translate emotional complexity into musical counterpoint."New York Times
“This seventh record from the aughts’ indie superstars promises a feast of grandiose rock.”New York Magazine
"Over the past 16 years this veteran indie quintet has quietly become one of the biggest bands in the country, and with their seventh album they've achieved the rare feat of releasing one of their best - if not the best - collection to date."Variety
"On Sleep Well Beast, the usual National ingredients are in place—cryptic imagery, brooding baritone, all-consuming melancholy—accompanied by an increasing interest in electronic rhythms and textures. " - Newsweek
"The indie band's seventh LP lives up to their acclaim as one of the nation's best, with sullen Matt Berninger's sullen croon turning midtempo ballads like 'Nobody Else Will Be There' into full-blow anthems. And the guitar work of brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner impresses more than ever, particularly on the squalling 'Turtleneck.'" - People Magazine
"The National is back when we need them most...on their sonically expansive seventh outing, [they] have come roaring back with their most ambitious, urgent album yet."USA Today
“Sleep Well Beast is what it is: an emotional battlefield, beautifully drawn, familiar and true. Berninger voices a panicked, depressive insomniac who might be any of us, trying to hold it together while everything falls apart.”Rolling Stone

 

The band is currently on tour, with newly announced North American dates listed below.  Earlier today it was announced that they will headline Primavera Sound in Barcelona on 1st June.

February 2018
21st - Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sydney, Australia [SOLD OUT]
22nd - Sydney Opera House Forecourt ,Sydney, Australia
25th - Villa Maria Winery, Auckland, New Zealand
27th - Riverstage, Brisbane, Australia

March
1st - Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia
16th - Lollapalooza Chile, Santiago, Chile
18th - Lollapalooza Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
22nd-23rd - Circo Voador, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
24th - Lollapalooza Brazil, Sao Paulo, Brazil
25th - Festival Estereo Picnic, Bogota, Columbia

April
28th - Homecoming Festival at Smale Park & Beyond, Cincinnati OH, US
29th - Homecoming Festival at Smale Park & Beyond, Cincinnati OH, US

May
1st - Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh, NC, US
3rd - Ascend Amphitheater, Nashville, TN, US
4th - Exploreasheville Arena, Asheville, NC, US
5th - St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine, FL, US
4-6th - Shaky Knees Festival, Atlanta, GA, US
25th - Boston Calling Music Festival, Boston, MA, US

June
1st - Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, Spain
2nd - All Points East Festival (Victoria Park), London, England
8th - Northside Festival, Aarhus, Denmark
9th - Best Kept Secret Festival, Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands
10th - Sideways Festival, Helsinki, Finland
15th - Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
16th - Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

July
13th – NOS Alive, Lisbon, Portugal

September
24th - Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, US
25th - Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, US