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The National - 'I Am Easy To Find' Out Now
The National : 'I Am Easy To Find' Out Now
17th May 2019

Today, The National release their eighth studio album I Am Easy To Find.

"A record filled with beauty." 
MOJO **** (Album of the Month)
"As tenderly bruised as they've ever sounded." 
- Record Collector **** (Album of the Month)
"A moving look at the way small moments make up a life." 
The Times **** (Album of the Week)
"To see a band pushing further, dramatically changing the formula this far into their career, is a beautiful thing."
- Evening Standard **** (Album of the Week)
"So captivating you want to return to it immediately."
The Guardian ****
"Epic." - Uncut
"Lush, profound, experimental." - NME ****
"An audacious and fascinating album." - Metro ****
"With a cast of female vocalists guiding and redirecting the songs, the National’s eighth album is their largest, longest, and most daring." - Pitchfork
"This isn’t a collection of alt-rock songs. This is high art." - Associated Press
"Sprawling, intimate, gorgeous." - Rolling Stone
"Continuing to hone The National's tried-and-true ways into new modes of drama." - NPR​
Q **** (Album of the Month​) | The Skinny ***** | DIY **** | The List ****
The Line of Best Fit 9/10 | NARC ***** (Album of the Month)
The Sunday Times (Album of the Week)

Available to buy on gatefold 2x black vinyl, tri-fold deluxe 3x coloured (yellow, red, grey) vinyl, and CD via 4AD here +
Available on all platforms here +

Previously released tracks include 'Rylan,' 'Hairpin Turns,' 'Light Years' and 'You Had Your Soul With You'.  The companion short film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Mike Mills (20th Century WomenBeginners), and starring Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander, was released earlier this week.

Watch 'I Am Easy To Find' here.

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

Many of the band's 2019 North American tour tickets included I Am Easy To Find digital album redemptions.  If you have received redemption instructions from the primary ticketing provider, you may follow those instructions to redeem now.  Have extra codes? Please share them with your friends, family, or someone who you think might enjoy a digital copy of the album.

If you're unsure if your North American ticket should have included an album redemption, please contact the primary ticketing provider.  We do not have access to ticketing information and cannot provide you with information about album redemptions.  Codes are likely to have been sent from MusicRedemptions.com or Ticketmaster.

June
11th - Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA, US*
12th - Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY, US* **SOLD OUT**
13th - Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY, US* 
15th - Bonnaroo, Manchester TN, US
16th -  Coca-Cola Roxy, Atlanta GA, US* **SOLD OUT**
17th - St Augustine Amphitheatre, St Augustine FL, US*
19th - The Anthem, Washington DC, US* **SOLD OUT**
20th - Thompson's Point, Portland ME, US*
21st - Place des Arts, Montreal QC, Canada **SOLD OUT**
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 **SOLD OUT**
12th - Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain
13th - Hyde Park, London, UK
15th - Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
16th - Stadtpark, Hamburg, Germany **SOLD OUT**
18th - Dalhalla, Rättvik, Sweden

August
4th - All Together Now, Waterford, Ireland **SOLD OUT**
6th - Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Glasgow, UK **SOLD OUT**
7th - Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Glasgow, UK **SOLD OUT**
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** **SOLD OUT**
30th - Edgefield, Portland OR, US** **SOLD OUT**

September
1st - Frost Amphitheater, Stanford CA, US**
2nd - Greek Theatre. Los Angeles CA, US**
3rd - Comerica Theatre, Phoenix AZ, US**
5th - Odgen 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**

October
16th - Pepsi Center, Mexico City, Mexico
24th - Agganis Arena, Boston, MA, 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
7th - Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK
8th - First Direct Arena, Leeds, UK
9th - Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, UK
10th - Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham, UK

*w/ Courtney Barnett
**w/ Alvvays