Grab your chalk and run crying toward “Demons,” The National’s new single from forthcoming album “Trouble Will Find Me.”
As singer Matt Berninger intimated, the new music seems to deal with the past, and growing older, as the chorus to this wistfully cinematic, chugging track suggest “I stay down with my demons.” It name-checks people of his past and sideways glances at the rock band’s former album “Alligators.”
I’m loving the singing in octave, unison with Berninger’s looow baritone, and the strings and piano finale, like Rick Rubin was sitting on and smiling. “Wanna see the sun come up above New York/Oh, everyday I start so great/Then the sunlight dims,” he sings. Everyone shivers.
This little heartbreaker is the second track on 13-song “Trouble Will Find Me,” due May 21 via XL. It was recorded in Rhinebeck, NY, produced by the band and mixed by Craig Silvey, Peter Katis, and Marcus Paquin.