THE NATIONAL’S SLEEP WELL BEAST NOMINATED FOR BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM FOR THE 2018 GRAMMY® AWARDS
SLEEP WELL BEAST ALSO NOMINATED FOR BEST RECORDING PACKAGE
Today, The Recording Academy® announced its nominations for the 60th annual GRAMMY® Awards including a nomination for The National in the Best Alternative Music Album category for their 2017 release Sleep Well Beast. This is the second Best Alternative Album GRAMMY nomination for The National, who were nominated for their last album, Trouble Will Find Me. Sleep Well Beast, with designers Luke Hayman and Andrea Trabucco-Campos of Pentagram, also received a nomination for Best Recording Package.
The National have established themselves as mainstays of arenas and festivals with sold-out performances and headlining slots around the world. With the release of Sleep Well Beast, The National achieved their highest chart position in the US to date, coming in at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. In addition they scored #1’s in the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Canada. The band received their highest chart position ever in a total of eleven countries. The National also claimed their first #1 at commercial radio on the Triple-A radio chart with “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness.”The songs off Sleep Well Beast are instantly recognizable as The National, but their sound has evolved and expanded. Sleep Well Beast is currently gracing best of 2017 lists around the globe. “It was important that we genuinely explore new territory and risk falling on our faces, or not make a record at all,” explains guitarist and producer Aaron Dessner. “This album feels complete to me.”
What critics are saying about Sleep Well Beast:
“The National’s upcoming full-length, Sleep Well Beast, is shaping up to be the best album the band has done.” – NPR
“Elegant melancholia isn’t enough for the National anymore. On its seventh album, Sleep Well Beast, its new songs have more rhythmic ferment and melodic crosscurrents; they translate emotional complexity into musical counterpoint.” – New York Times
“This seventh record from the aughts’ indie superstars promises a feast of grandiose rock.” – New York Magazine
“Over the past 16 years this veteran indie quintet has quietly become one of the biggest bands in the country, and with their seventh album they’ve achieved the rare feat of releasing one of their best – if not the best – collection to date.” – Variety
“On Sleep Well Beast, the usual National ingredients are in place-cryptic imagery, brooding baritone, all-consuming melancholy-accompanied by an increasing interest in electronic rhythms and textures. ” – Newsweek
“The indie band’s seventh LP lives up to their acclaim as one of the nation’s best, with sullen Matt Berninger’s sullen croon turning midtempo ballads like ‘Nobody Else Will Be There’ into full-blow anthems. And the guitar work of brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner impresses more than ever, particularly on the squalling ‘Turtleneck.'” – People Magazine
“The National is back when we need them most…on their sonically expansive seventh outing, [they] have come roaring back with their most ambitious, urgent album yet.”
– USA Today
“Sleep Well Beast is what it is: an emotional battlefield, beautifully drawn, familiar and true. Berninger voices a panicked, depressive insomniac who might be any of us, trying to hold it together while everything falls apart.” – Rolling Stone
Photo Credit: Graham MacIndoe
More about The National
Both individually and collectively The National’s members have been involved in countless artistic, charitable and socio-political pursuits. The group released ‘A Lot of Sorrow’ documenting their collaboration with installation artist Ragnar Kjartansson, that took place at MOMA’s PS1 and saw the band play their song “Sorrow” for six hours in front of a live audience. They are behind the Red Hot benefit albums Dark Was The Night and Day Of The Dead, and most recently compilation boxed set titled 7-Inches for Planned Parenthood. The band’s members have received a Golden Globe Nomination for work on the score of the 2015 film The Revenant, founded or play a major part in MusicNow, Eeux Claires and Haven Festival and Boston Calling, and participated heavily in both Obama Presidential Campaigns, and much more.
2013 also saw the theatrical release of their documentary, “Mistaken For Strangers” set to the backdrop of the band’s 2010 release High Violet. The documentary was chosen to premiere on the opening night of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival followed by a theatrical release in the US and worldwide distribution. Over their 16-year career the band has sold more than 1.7 million albums in the U.S. alone.
The National consists of Matt Berninger (vocals) fronting two pairs of brothers: Aaron (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano), and Scott (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).
