22, A Million is part love letter, part final resting place of two decades of searching for self-understanding like a religion. And the inner-resolution of maybe never finding that understanding. The album's 10 poly-fi recordings are a collection of sacre
If 'For Emma, Forever Ago’ was the crisp, isolation of a northern Winter; ‘Bon Iver’ the rise and whirr of Spring; and '22, A Million', a crazy energy Summer record, ‘i,i’ completes the cycle: a fall record; Autumn-colored, ruminative, steeped.
The surprise companion to The National's April release First Two Pages of Frankenstein, Laugh Track is the band's most freewheeling, all-hands-on-deck album in years.
Fashioned as an album that should be taken as a whole, it sounds lovingly handmade and self-assured as a secret handshake. Track by track, it's equal parts elegy, kaleidoscope, truth, and dare.