I think it's highly likely they tour with a couple female vocalists. They had 2 "full time" female vocalists at the small tour they just did, in addition to the guest singers coming out.

They can afford it.

Only listened to half so far and I love it. What a great fucking band.

*Edit: I'm also really digging so far so fast

i haven't listened to anything yet. holding out for the entire thing to drop.

i'm also refraining from preordering the record, because as history has shown, The National vinyl prices can drop drastically within a year of release.

That's true of just about every band out there now. I rarely pre-order anything anymore unless it's some sort of limited edition (for this LP, I ordered the fan club edition).

yeah, especially bands that produce a high volume of product. i regularly see Sleep Well Beast hitting $15 and below these days. ugh.

after listening to where is her head, it'll become clear how the second drummer will fit into their live shows this tour.

That one/two punch of the title track and Where Is Her Head is fantastic.

so where is her head reminds me a lot of rem's it happened today. it's very cathartic.

this album is amazing.

also, listen on headphones -- you'll pick up a lot more that's going on in the background.

Yeah, I've come all the way around; this is a special record. And I'm watching some of the live stuff after avoiding it before hearing the record, and some of these are going to be great. Hey Rosey was one of the songs that didn't do much for me originally, but even on a Youtube video of a live version it's really working better. And Where Is Her Head could definitely turn into something really powerful live, even though it doesn't really have the same feel as a lot of their earlier uptempo stuff. I could easily see that refrain at the end ("and I will not come back the same") as a Matt losing his shit kind of moment.

It will probably grow on me like all of their albums but so far every time one of the women sings an entire verse I can't help but think it would be better if Matt was singing. The backing vocals are beautiful though.

Fan club sent out a sort of weird, cryptic email today, and all it sounds like is that "Rylan" is going to be released as the last pre-release single from the album tomorrow. We'll see.

The woman guest singer sings more than the regular singer

I like the 2nd track but other than that, this is trash

Usually when I dl a national album I really like 2 songs on it, so this one falls below expectations

yah wtf was that

Like, was it missing a link? Do we really need another music video with clips pasted together from a movie that was released in full (for free) a few days ago? Just an odd choice.

way too much women signing.

I've yet to listen to the album, but from the singles released, I really like the guest singers' contributions. I get tired of listening to bands because of hearing the main singer over and over. I think this is very smart of them to change it up like this.

On a re-listen, I am more into the first half. Still think the second part is better.

Ill listen to this one tomorrow probably.

Really exited about it.