4AD home

The National - 'I Am Easy To Find', New Album Out 17th May
The National : 'I Am Easy To Find', New Album Out 17th May
5th March 2019

Today The National announce that their new album I Am Easy To Find will be released 17th May, and share the opening track ‘You Had Your Soul With You’ which features the vocals of long-time David Bowie collaborator Gail Ann Dorsey.  I Am Easy To Find is the band’s eighth studio album and the follow-up to 2017’s GRAMMY®-award winning release Sleep Well Beast

You can pre-order on gatefold 2x black vinyl, tri-fold deluxe 3x coloured (yellow, red, grey) vinyl, and CD via 4AD here +
You can pre-save, and pre-order, on all platforms here +

A companion short film with the same name will also be released with music by The National and inspired by the album.  The film was directed by Academy Award-nominated director Mike Mills (20th Century Women, Beginners), and starring Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander.  More film details to be released at a later date.  Mills, along with the band, is credited as co-producer of the album, which was mostly recorded at Long Pond, Hudson Valley, NY with additional sessions in Paris, Berlin, Cincinnati, Austin, Dublin, Brooklyn and more far flung locations.  The album features vocal contributions from Sharon Van Etten, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tindle and more.

You can find the tracklisting and and a host of new tour dates below.  The album will be released on gatefold 2x black vinyl and deluxe tri-fold 3x coloured (yellow, red and grey) vinyl, plus CD, whilst indie retailers will also have gatefold 2x clear vinyl.

Having already announced A Very Special Evening with The National, five events happening this April in Paris, London, New York, Toronto and LA, the band has also announced a world tour beginning this June with Courtney Barnett and Alvvays opening on select dates. See all tour dates below. Tickets on sale Friday, March 8th at 10AM local time.  For tickets and more information, visit www.americanmary.com.

More about I Am Easy To Find

On 3rd September 2017, director Mike Mills emailed Matt Berninger to introduce himself and in very short order, the most ambitious project of the National’s nearly 20-year career was born and plans for a hard-earned vacation died.  The Los Angeles-based filmmaker was coming off his third feature, 20th Century Women, and was interested in working with the band on... something.  A video maybe. Berninger, already a fan of Mills’ films, not only agreed to collaborate, he essentially handed over the keys to the band’s creative process.

The result is I Am Easy to Find, a 24-minute film by Mills starring Alicia Vikander, and I Am Easy to Find, a 68-minute album by the National.  The former is not the video for the latter; the latter is not the soundtrack to the former.  The two projects are, as Mills calls them, “Playfully hostile siblings that love to steal from each other” -- they share music and words and DNA and impulses and a vision about what it means to be human in 2019, but don’t necessarily need one another.  The movie was composed like a piece of music; the music was assembled like a film, by a film director.  The frontman and natural focal point was deliberately and dramatically sidestaged in favour of a variety of female voices, nearly all of whom have long been in the group’s orbit.  It is unlike anything either artist has ever attempted and also totally in line with how they’ve created for much of their careers.

As the album’s opening track, ‘You Had Your Soul With You,’ unfurls, it’s so far, so National: a digitally manipulated guitar line, skittering drums, Berninger’s familiar baritone, mounting tension.  Then around the 2:15 mark, the true nature of I Am Easy To Find announces itself: the racket subsides, strings swell, and the voice of long-time David Bowie bandmate Gail Ann Dorsey booms out—not as background vocals, not as a hook, but to take over the song.  Elsewhere it’s Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan, or Sharon Van Etten, or Mina Tindle or Kate Stables of This Is the Kit, or varying combinations of them.  The Brooklyn Youth Choir, whom Bryce Dessner had worked with before.  There are choral arrangements and strings on nearly every track, largely put together by Bryce in Paris—not a negation of the band’s dramatic tendencies, but a redistribution of them.

Yes, there are a lot of women singing on this, but it wasn't because, ‘Oh, let's have more women's voices,’ says Berninger. “It was more, ‘Let's have more of a fabric of people's identities.’ It would have been better to have had other male singers, but my ego wouldn't let that happen.”

Read more about I Am Easy To Find here.

The National - I Am Easy To Find
4AD0154

1. You Had Your Soul With You
2. Quiet Light
3. Roman Holiday
4. Oblivions
5. The Pull Of You
6. Hey Rosey
7. I Am Easy To Find
8. Her Father In The Pool
9. Where Is Her Head
10. Not In Kansas
11. So Far So Fast
12. Dust Swirls In Strange Light
13. Hairpin Turns
14. Rylan
15. Underwater
16. Light Years

A new world tour begins this June, and the band will be joined by Courtney Barnett and Alvvays at many of the shows.  You can find all tour dates below and at americanmary.com.  Tickets will be on sale Friday, 8th March at 10AM local time.

Each ticket for the newly announced North American headlining dates (including the April North American performances announced last week) comes with a redemption code for a digital copy of the I Am Easy To Find album. Fans also have the choice to use the redemption code to upgrade (at an additional cost) to a physical album (LP or CD) instead.  Festival performances and performances outside North America do not include a digital or physical album redemption.  Some North American headlining shows may not offer CD upgrades.

April
16th - Olympia, Paris, France
18th - Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
22nd - Beacon Theatre, New York NY, US
24th - Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Canada
26th - Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles CA, US

June
11th - Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, US*
12th - Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY, US*
15th - Bonnaroo, Manchester TN, US
16th -  Coca-Cola Roxy, Atlanta GA, US*
17th - St Augustine Amphitheatre, St Augustine FL, US*
19th - The Anthem, Washington DC, US*
20th - Thompson's Point, Portland ME, US*
21st - Place des Arts, Montreal QC, Canada
22nd - Pier 8, Hamilton ON, Canada**
24th - Express Live, Columbus OH, US*
25th - Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor MI, US*
26th - Lawn at White River, Indianapolis IN, US*
28th - Northerly Island, Chicago IL, US**

July
10th - Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, UK
12th - Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain
13th - Hyde Park, London, UK
15th - Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
16th - Stadtpark, Hamburg, Germany
18th - Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden

August
4th - All Together Now, Waterford, Ireland
6th - Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Glasgow, UK
7th - Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Glasgow, UK
9th - Ypsigrock, Sicily, Italy
10th - Sziget Festival, Budapest, Hungary
11th - Summer Well, Buftea, Romania
14th - Paredes de Coura, Paredes de Coura, Portugal
16th - Pukkelpop, Hasselt, Belgium
16th - 18th - Lowlands, Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands
18th - Pukkelpop, Hasselt, Belgium
28th - Deer Lake Park, Vancouver BC, Canada**
29th - Marymoor Park, Seattle WA, US**
30th - Edgefield, Portland OR, US**

September
1st - Frost Amphitheater, Stanford CA, US**
2nd - Greek Theatre. Los Angeles CA, US**
3rd - Comerica Theatre, Phoenix AZ, US**
5th - Ogden Ampitheater, Odgen UT, US**
8th - Santa Fe Opera House, Santa Fe NM, US**
10th - 360 Amphitheatre, Austin TX, US**
11th -  White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX, US**

November
25th - Torwar Hall, Warsaw, Poland
26th - Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany
27th - Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany
29th - Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark

December
1st - Ruhrcongress, Bochum, Germany
2nd - Palladium, Cologne, Germany
3rd - Samsung Hall, Zurich, Switzerland
4th - Zenith, Munich, Germany
5th - Porsche Arena, Stuttgart, Germany

*w/ Courtney Barnett
**w/ Alvvays