Hailing from Brooklyn since the start of the 2000s, the National wove alternative country-rock, Americana, chamber pop, and post-punk textures into their brooding, meticulously shaped rock. Early releases earned them a loyal following and widespread critical respect, yet it was their fourth album, Boxer from 2007, that first registered on the charts. That record signaled a slow departure from their earthier roots, favoring broader orchestral arrangements that framed frontman Matt Berninger’s articulate lyrics and somber delivery. High Violet, issued in 2010, refined an atmospheric balance of electronic and acoustic elements that highlighted the band’s inward focus. The album also delivered a commercial leap, entering Billboard’s Top 200 at number three. Thereafter the National stood at the forefront of mature indie rock, exploring their distinctive traits further on Trouble Will Find Me and Sleep Well Beast before attracting Taylor Swift’s notice; she worked with Aaron Dessner on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore. That association introduced the National to wider listeners who embraced First Two Pages of Frankenstein and Laugh Track in 2023 along with the 2024 concert recording Rome.
Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner on guitar and bass, and brothers Scott Devendorf on bass and guitar and Bryan Devendorf on drums formed the National in 1999 after emerging from the Cincinnati garage-punk outfit Nancy. Berninger, Scott Devendorf, Mike Brewer, Casey Reas, and Jeff Salem comprised Nancy, which issued Ruther 3429 before dissolving as Berninger and Devendorf moved to Brooklyn. There the two ex-graphic-design students teamed with Cincinnati-born Columbia University alumnus Aaron Dessner and Scott’s sibling Bryan. The four-piece secured a standing weekly slot at Manhattan’s Luna Lounge and began shaping their first album. Released in 2001 on Brassland Records—the independent imprint Aaron Dessner launched with his twin Bryce, a Yale graduate holding a master’s in music—The National introduced the core lineup. Bryce soon added guitar, locking in the configuration that endured through their ascent.
Also on Brassland, the 2003 follow-up Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers reunited the National with producer Nick Lloyd and retained the debut’s refined fusion of country-tinged rock and introspective chamber pop while introducing enduring associate Padma Newsome, who supplied violin, viola, and string arrangements. Two years later Alligator arrived on Beggars Banquet, again featuring Newsome’s strings plus piano and organ contributions from Newsome and Lloyd. Boxer, their fourth album, became a 2007 commercial milestone. Expanded instrumentation—woodwinds, brass, keyboards from Thomas Bartlett (Doveman)—and production shared by the band and Peter Katis helped it reach number 68 on the Billboard 200 while climbing higher in the U.K., New Zealand, and Finland. The Virginia EP, a 2008 set of unreleased tracks, B-sides, demos, and live cuts, followed.
Signing with 4AD for High Violet, the National expanded the cinematic approach heard on Boxer. Returning partners Newsome and Bartlett joined guests Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. The 2010 album reached the top three in the U.S., Canada, and several European territories and number five in the U.K. Similar placements greeted 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, which again featured Bartlett, Muhly, Parry, and Stevens among more than a dozen additional players; Sharon Van Etten, Nona Marie Invie, and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark provided vocals. That record earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Lot of Sorrow, a nine-LP box set capturing a six-hour performance of the song “Sorrow” at MoMA PS1 in May 2013, appeared in 2015.
Around the same period members explored side ventures. Bryan Devendorf joined Menomena’s Danny Seim and trombonist Dave Nelson (David Byrne and St. Vincent) in the avant indie-rock trio Pfarmers, which released Gunnera in mid-2015. Later that year Berninger issued Return to the Moon with multi-instrumentalist Brent Knopf (Menomena, Ramona Falls) as the duo EL VY. In early 2016 Bryan and Scott Devendorf linked with Beirut’s Ben Lanz in LNZNDRF, whose self-titled 4AD album was followed by the EP Green Roses in August—the same month Pfarmers delivered their second record, Our Puram. The National then regrouped.
Produced once more by the band and Katis, Sleep Well Beast, their seventh album and third for 4AD, arrived in 2017 and pursued still-wider sonic horizons. It peaked at number two in the U.S. and topped charts in Canada, Ireland, and the U.K., securing a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in early 2018. Boxer: Live in Brussels appeared later that year.
I Am Easy to Find, the National’s eighth studio album, emerged in May 2019. Conceived after a collaboration with filmmaker Mike Mills, it topped the U.S. Top Rock Albums chart and included vocal cameos from Gail Ann Dorsey, Eve Owen, and Sharon Van Etten. Aaron Dessner’s production work for Taylor Swift placed the National on “Coney Island” from her 2020 album Evermore. After contributing a cover of INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” to the bushfire-relief charity collection Songs for Australia, the band supplied the original song “Somebody Desperate” for the 2021 Cyrano soundtrack. The standalone single “Weird Goodbyes,” a collaboration with Bon Iver, surfaced in 2022. The cycle for First Two Pages of Frankenstein began with the January 2023 single “Tropical Morning News.” The gentle, reflective album, featuring appearances by Sufjan Stevens and Phoebe Bridgers, arrived in April 2023. Following the North American tour supporting it, the band quickly assembled Laugh Track from leftover Frankenstein sessions plus several new compositions. Cameos from Bridgers, Bon Iver, and Rosanne Cash marked the surprise September 2023 release. During their 2024 world tour the National captured a performance at Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone; longtime associate Katis mixed the 21-track set, issued in December as Rome.
