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- Critic score
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Apr 26, 2023This is The National back from their brink and at their absolute best.
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Apr 27, 2023It’s a taut, focused collection that reins in the sprawl of the group’s 2019 release I Am Easy to Find and re-centers the band on their most emotionally complete effort since Boxer.
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Apr 28, 2023First Two Pages of Frankenstein is by no means subversive – but it’s worth at least keeping on the bookshelf for whenever you, too, feel lost.
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Jun 1, 2023After dancing through all these keys of fear, loss, and distress, the record ends with “Send for Me,” a simple and moving pledge to come pick you up, whatever happens. The slow bloom of warmth feels hard won, but not even remotely fragile.
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May 15, 2023Even without the backstory or an understanding of how difficult this record was to make, …Frankenstein is a skilful portrait of what it means to feel disconnected from the joy and urgency of life.
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May 3, 2023There are hints of the band's more dynamic past on Eucalyptus, Tropic Morning News and Grease In Your Hair. But on the whole, First Two Pages of Frankenstein is an excellent exploration into recovery from depression, passion and addiction and is one of the finest records The National have released in quite some time.
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May 2, 2023First Two Pages of Frankenstein is still obviously the National’s work and sound, but it wants to reach out more than they ever have.
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Apr 28, 2023First Two Pages of Frankenstein is up there with Boxer, the band’s 2007 album on which they thrillingly found their musical feet. This is the sound of a band who’ve honed their sound to such an extent that they’re now towing a whole new generation in their wake.
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Apr 27, 2023Nothing here sounds precisely new -- this is the aesthetic that gelled around the time of High Violet, yet the skill in the craft is married to a brightness in outlook that lets First Two Pages of Frankenstein operate on two parallel paths: it can serve as moody atmosphere or reward close listening.
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Apr 27, 2023It’s realistic, reassuring, and rather soporific.
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Apr 27, 2023First Two Pages of Frankenstein is yet another dose to remind you why – and how – the band have managed to carve their own special place out in the cultural landscape.
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Apr 27, 2023First Two Pages of Frankenstein feels like a return to The National we fell in love with 20-plus years ago while still being creatively ambitious and providing new context to a band who never fears away from putting themselves out there.
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Apr 26, 2023A remarkable reassertion of the band’s potency. ... Nine albums deep, the National find new energy by conjuring not just a great, suffocating fog but also the far light that guides the way out.
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Apr 26, 2023A carefully sculpted project, a level of fluidity and richness stitched together with the highest calibre of performance, production and songwriting. Like Frankenstein and his monster, the commitment to the design and blueprint of this record is incredible; every minute detail, sound, glitch, has been selected with the utmost care by The National.
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Apr 26, 2023Occasionally, such stylings verge on the generically anthemic on First Two Pages of Frankenstein. ... The songs here are otherwise richly stacked with detail and sonic shadings.
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Apr 26, 2023A little change of pace and a tad more sonic variety admittedly wouldn’t have gone amiss, but nevertheless, ‘…Frankenstein’ is a solid addition to The National’s canon.
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May 2, 2023They’ve built up enough good will at this point that they’re able to maintain a massive fanbase by coasting through comfortable records – and they could probably continue to do that for a few more years at least. But, if Berninger and co really want to rediscover purpose in their lives and work, perhaps it’s time to push themselves somewhere a little riskier.
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Apr 27, 2023The chaos comes on the very next track, “Grease in Your Hair,” one of a couple songs that performs the National’s old sleight of hand: working the anxiety around until they pull an anthem out of thin air. As a way to address one of the primary tensions in their catalog—writing songs about dissatisfaction in spite of great conventional success—it’s a great bit. But as Frankenstein moves from wrestling to reckoning, the swells are tamer.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 37
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Mixed: 8 out of 37
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Negative: 0 out of 37
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Apr 28, 2023
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Apr 28, 2023
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May 14, 2023