Album: The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein

• The National

A year or so into the pandemic—and two decades into a career spent fronting The National—Matt Berninger couldn’t bear to write another song. “I didn't want to unpack myself,” he tells Apple Music. “I was burned out on introspection and self-analysis and making all these songs about complicated personal things. It was a mess I didn't want to clean up in my mind. So I just avoided it.”