Album reviews

ALT-ROCK

The National: I Am Easy To Find (4AD)

The National’s eighth album in 20 years appears, on paper, to be a radical departure: co-produced (or perhaps directed) by filmmaker Mike Mills, it features an orchestra and youth choir, backing up a host of first-rate female co-vocalists, including Sharon Van Etten, Gail Ann Dorsey and Lisa Hannigan. Yet while these guests add a melodic counterpoint to Matt Berninger’s typically sombre monologues, the ...