The surprise companion to The National's April release First Two Pages of Frankenstein, Laugh Track is the band's most freewheeling, all-hands-on-deck album in years.

If Frankenstein represented a rebuilding of trust between group members after 20+ years together, the vibrant, exploratory Laugh Track is both the product of that faith and a new statement of intent.

Revelling in the license to radically upend its creative process, The National honed most of this material in live performances on tour, and captured those invigorated versions in impromptu sessions at producer Tucker Martines Portland studio. Two nights later in Vancouver, the nearly eight-minute album closer Smoke Detector was recorded during soundcheck, completing a body of work bristling with spontaneity and vintage rock energy that makes a perfect complement to the songs found on its more introspective predecessor.

Review

A1 Alphabet City
A2 Deep End (Paul'S In Pieces)
A3 Weird Goodbyes
B1 Turn Off The House
B2 Dreaming
B3 Laugh Track
C1 Space Invader
C2 Hornets
C3 Coat On A Hook
D1 Tour Manager
D2 Crumble
D3 Smoke Detector