The National: Sleep Well Beast (2LP, gatefold, white vinyl) [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes on white vinyl in a gatefold jacket, with a folded 24-inch poster and a download of the album. Sleep Well Beast won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in 2018.

This edition

• 2LP set
• White vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Folded 24-inch poster
• Download card included

About the album

The barn on the cover is 18th century, sits in New York's Hudson Valley and belongs to Aaron Dessner, who rebuilt it as the studio where much of Sleep Well Beast took shape. Graham MacIndoe photographed it, and the band's seventh album grew around that room: Matt Berninger's lyrics, written with Carin Besser, set against music by Aaron and Bryce Dessner.

It's a restless, beautifully textured record, with Bryce's orchestrations and more electronics than ever under the brooding piano and guitar. "The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness" was the first single, "Guilty Party" is quietly devastating, "Carin At The Liquor Store" is a tender piano ballad, "Day I Die" charges forward, and "I'll Still Destroy You" became the fifth single. Peter Katis co-produced two tracks, and Casey Reas directed four videos that ended up on billboards in Times Square, London and Copenhagen.

Pentagram designed the whole campaign, down to a pentagon logo cut from the barn and a corporate standards manual, partly as a bit of a joke. We have a laminated sign about the bathroom key, which we now realize is the same thing.

Also at Kops: more The National on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# 4AD0020LPE), the 2017 album.