Matt Berninger's brooding, droning baritone is difficult to separate from .
His second solo album, āGet Sunk,ā doesn't diverge much from the alt-rock band he's fronted for more than a quarter-century. And why should it?
The National's sad-dad brand exists in the bittersweet spot between Berninger's complex lyrics and a melodic versatility. And "Get Sunkā sounds more like an extension of the band's catalog than a self-serving experiment for a restless songwriter.
It works on both levels ā with the album's familiar, upbeat electric guitar-escapes.
But when compared to his band's repertoire, āGet Sunkā runs out of steam. Even with his consistently clever lyrics, a couple of lethargic songs can drag down a 10-track lineup.
The record arrives a few years after a struggle with pandemic-driven depression, as he detailed . Berninger was hit by a bad case of writerās block after his first solo record, āSerpentine Prison,ā came out in 2020.
The Nationalās release of two new albums five months apart in 2023, after a four-year hiatus, some of Berninger's frozen creativity. His family moved from California to Connecticut that year, too, further aiding his reset; he began reading and painting in the fresh air.
On āGet Sunk," the third track, āBonnet of Pins,ā brings a hard edge, evoking the band's āThe System Only Dreams in Total Darknessā record from 2017. āGet Sunkā producer Sean O'Brien cranks on the guitar. Drummer Sterling Laws does his best impression of The National stalwart Bryan Devendorf. Julia Laws, whose indie rock band Ronboy has been touring with Berninger, sings backup on this smoky, stressful encounter with an ex-lover.
āItās a cup trick shell game, itās a puff of smoke/And it gets me every time, itās a pretty good joke,ā Berninger sings. āI know that you miss me, I know that you miss me/This stuff takes a lifetime.ā
With the infectious opener āInland Oceanā bursting with a reverbed guitar that pulsates throughout the song, āGet Sunkā gets revved up right away. Even on the downbeat āNowhere Special," Berninger is at his songwriting best ambling through a rant about an on-again, off-again relationship: āA bat can haul our recording equipment into the woods/I know we shouldnāt but I feel like we should.ā The closer, āTimes of Difficulty,ā is tailor-made for a live-show singalong with the chant āGet drunk! Get sunk! Forget! Get wet!ā that marks Berninger's search for clarity and creativity.
Much like The National's 2019 album āI Am Easy to Find,ā which brought in several women to pair vocals with his gravelly baritone, āGet Sunkā follows suit. Laws sings on eight of the 10 tracks, and Meg Duffy of the band Hand Habits joins Berninger on the sentimental āFrozen Oranges."
The sleepiness of āFrozen Orangesā is also the first warning there's just not enough energy to cover a whole album, not quite enough strength for āGet Sunkā to swim on its own. Berninger will be forever intertwined with The National, a connection there's no need to undo.
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Dave Campbell, The Associated Press
