The National - Laugh Track (2023)

Posted By: popsakov

Date: Nov. 19, 2023

Laugh Track is the tenth studio album from American indie rock band The National. The surprise album was released on September 18, 2023, having been announced only days prior. The album's material was mostly written and recorded alongside the band's earlier 2023 album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, with several songs being re-recorded at producer Tucker Martine's studio after honing their arrangements while on tour in 2023. Preceded by the singles, "Weird Goodbyes", "Alphabet City" and "Space Invader", the album features guest vocal appearances from Justin Vernon, Phoebe Bridgers and Rosanne Cash. Laugh Track has received positive reviews from critics.

Arriving swiftly on the heels of First Two Pages of Frankenstein, Laugh Track is indeed a companion record to its 2023 cousin, boasting similar cover art and containing songs written – but not necessarily recorded – during those same sessions. Given those overt similarities, it's not a surprise that Laugh Track often sounds like a continuation of Frankenstein, tilling the same meditative ground and generating similarly nuanced results. The National remains fascinated by the consoling power of stillness, operating at a low hum that allows space for Matt Berninger to ruminate as the band searches for variations of texture within cycling chords. Laugh Track isn't quite as tightly controlled as Frankenstein, often for the record's benefit. Some of this creeping loosening is due to collaborators who make their presence known: "Weird Goodbyes" occupies the slight liminal space separating the National and Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers provides a forceful counterpoint on "Laugh Track," and Rosanne Cash's harmonies and bridge on "Crumble" tease out its plaintive heartbreak. The rest of Laugh Track simmers at a precisely modulated temperature, bringing the songs to warmth slowly and steadily, which makes the ragged drone of the closing "Smoke Detector" so welcome: its insistent pulse and maze of guitars feel full-blooded and messy in a way the National has avoided for a long, long time.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music

Discogs

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Track List:

01. Alphabet City [3:44]
02. Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces) [4:30]
03. Weird Goodbyes (feat. Bon Iver) [5:05]
04. Turn Off the House [4:36]
05. Dreaming [3:47]
06. Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) [4:24]
07. Space Invader [6:57]
08. Hornets [4:36]
09. Coat on a Hook [4:59]
10. Tour Manager [4:26]
11. Crumble (feat. Rosanne Cash) [4:35]
12. Smoke Detector [7:48]

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 13. November 2023, 12:55

The National / Laugh Track

Used drive : HL-DT-STBD-RE WH16NS60 Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 3:43.57 | 0 | 16781
2 | 3:43.57 | 4:29.33 | 16782 | 36989
3 | 8:13.15 | 5:04.06 | 36990 | 59795
4 | 13:17.21 | 4:35.18 | 59796 | 80438
5 | 17:52.39 | 3:46.67 | 80439 | 97455
6 | 21:39.31 | 4:24.09 | 97456 | 117264
7 | 26:03.40 | 6:58.06 | 117265 | 148620
8 | 33:01.46 | 4:35.16 | 148621 | 169261
9 | 37:36.62 | 4:58.05 | 169262 | 191616
10 | 42:34.67 | 4:26.39 | 191617 | 211605
11 | 47:01.31 | 4:35.10 | 211606 | 232240
12 | 51:36.41 | 7:47.04 | 232241 | 267269

Track 1

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Track 2

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\02 - Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces).wav

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Track 3

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Track 4

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\04 - Turn Off the House.wav

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Track 5

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\05 - Dreaming.wav

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Track 6

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\06 - Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers).wav

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Track 7

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\07 - Space Invader.wav

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Track 8

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\08 - Hornets.wav

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Track 9

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\09 - Coat on a Hook.wav

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Track 10

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\10 - Tour Manager.wav

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Track 11

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\11 - Crumble (feat. Rosanne Cash).wav

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Peak level 99.2 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 12

Filename D:\The National - Laugh Track (2023) - FLAC\12 - Smoke Detector.wav

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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: 414gLTp0AWQlyXUx_JhsHdsk5KE-] disk not present in database
Submit result: 414gLTp0AWQlyXUx_JhsHdsk5KE- has been uploaded

==== Log checksum 2EF0EC8F16FBE4B7B515D4ED9E15CDF861B764BC52BC2E9B958BF087AAC5AA90 ====

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