the 1st single off the upcoming new album from The National.
am I excited? yep, maybe just a smidge.
the new album will be released September 8, 2017 and is titled “Sleep Well Beast”. you can pre-order the album here.
Tracklist:
- Nobody Else Will Be There
- Day I Die
- Walk It Back
- The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness
- Born to Beg
- Turtleneck
- Empire Line
- I’ll Still Destroy You
- Guilty Party
- Carin at the Liquor Store
- Dark Side of the Gym
- Sleep Well Beast
well this was a slightly misleading title for the blog post, but timed well with St. Patrick’s Day.
today’s tunes is from the band The Gloaming, an incredible piece called “The Pilgrim’s Song” from their 2nd album.
the band has just a great overall sound, a nice mixture of classical and folk music, with fantastic violin/fiddle strung throughout all of their songs.
here are the English translation of the lyrics:
The land spoke like a temple
The Rivers journey was winding
to their knees the valleys genuflected
the sign of he cross on the branchesI heard the gospel on the wind
and holiness was upon the earth
This was where my first love lived
I’d not been this way for so longI saw life like a tale from the Fianna
Long ago when it was morning
The way a magic wand takes the sword’s shape
In the hands of childrenThere is a vision, that I know well
Simmering in the womb of my imagination
A bright flame without substance, a breath,
Pleading for an appropriate shape.
more information on the song and the studio album can be found here via their label, Brassland.
I’ve posted one song previously by The Gloaming: “the sailor’s bonnet”
another great tune and incredibly cool video from Lisa Hannigan – this song is called “Undertow”:
in a strange twist of fate, it seems that my favorite band, The National, has some influence on Lisa, as Aaron Dessner of The National helped Lisa on this latest album.
I found the video via NPR – they have a neat article about the video, you can read it here.
There’s a bit of magic in this video. It feels as if time is moving backward — in part because of the slow motion, but something else felt reversed, too.
read the NPR interview for more details and a spoiler.
I’ve posted this song before, but here is another brilliant live version of The National performing their cover of the Grateful Dead song “Peggy-O”. performed at Eaux Claires 2015.
this song is groovy.
Things are lookin clear as they’ve ever been
Don’t know how it’ll end but I know where to begin
a clever little revision to the “I’m on a boat” song by The Lonely Island, this time with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots for the Tonight Show, with the music all from classroom instruments.
you can see the original version of the song here.
I’ve got a nautical themed pashmina afghan.
comments