The American rock band The National released their ninth studio album at the end of April with “First Two Pages Pages of Frankenstein.” The long-awaited comeback album is 11 songs of soft and peaceful tunes, and “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” is officially the latest and greatest study album.

Released at the perfect time for finals, turn this on in Hodges Library, and that lab you are finishing up will feel like a stroll on the beach. Listen to “Tropic Morning News” before that stats final, and the good vibrations are proven to increase test scores by at least a percentage point. However, don’t listen to the lyrics too closely, or there is a good chance you might start crying in a study room.

“First Two Pages of Frankenstein” opens with “Once Upon a Poolside.” A song with minimal production aside from a piano, this is the classic sound of The National that fans have been waiting for since their last album release in 2019.

“Once Upon A Poolside” is seemingly about uncertainty in the future and realizing the way things have changed over time. There is a sort of yearning for time to slow down and a helplessness in realizing that you’ve forgotten things that were once important to you, as the lyrics say, “What was the thing you worried said to me?/I can’t keep, I can’t stop/ I can’t keep track of everything/ if everything is different/ Why do I feel the same?”

The song continues on with the grasping at memories as lead singer Matt Berninger sings about “talking of once upon a poolside/ Underneath the lights.”

“New Order T-Shirt” is the third song off of the record with a more upbeat track to back the lyrics. However, the lyrics in “New Order T-Shirt” keep up with the general woeful, wistful and melancholic message in the rest of the songs.

Berninger begins singing about a time “a little under a month/ Before the ashes and management capital files filled the streets.” It is an allusion to 9/11 as the band members lived in New York during the time of the terrorist attack. The rest of the song sings of a simpler time before then. It is like a highlight reel of memories before so much of life changed.

Berninger even sings of how the COVID-19 pandemic in an uncanny way traumatized and changed society, telling how after checking his temperature he said, “I think I’m finally going crazy for real.”

Similar to “Once Upon A Poolside,” “New Order T-Shirt” is about holding onto memories.

“I keep what I can of you/ Split second glimpses and snapshots and sounds/ You in my New Order t-shirt/ Holding a cat and a glass of beer/ I flicker through/ I carry them with me like drugs in a pocket,” the lyrics say.

Slowly, we see the subject of the song changes as more of life happens and wears down spirit until things are no longer the same as they were in memories.

“When you cried at the beach and recovered in seconds/ And said everything’s fine but I knew it wasn’t/ Then you stayed out of reach of me for almost a year,” the lyrics say.

Phoebe Birdgers joins The National in the fourth track on the album titled “This Isn’t Helping.”

“This Isn’t Helping” is one of the most beautiful tracks on “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” in terms of the lyricism. A song about frustration and jealousy, wanting to be happy and optimistic but entirely unable to be.

“I cannot believe what you get away with/ You find beauty in anything/ Whenever you look down into a sewer/ You see a diamond ring/ It isn’t fair how you never/ Look like you’re trying,” the lyrics say.

Bridgers and Berninger sing about the unfairness of people being able to move on while they remain stuck and still impacted, singing “You can say that this doesn’t have to hurt/ You’re there if you need to be found/ Can’t you that that makes/ It so much worse?”

With the signature big and climactic ending that Phoebe Bridgers does so well, her influence in the song is evident in more than just her backing vocals. Bridgers appears again later in the album in “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend.”

“Tropic Morning News” is an easy standout when listening to the album from front to back. With an upbeat, happy feel, the song is without a doubt an instant classic. Though, once again, there is a sharp contrast between the production of the song and the message behind it.

Berninger sings of “[getting] up to seize the day/ With my head in my hands, feeling strange/ When all my thinking go mangled/ And I caught myself talking myself off the ceiling.”

Where the prior songs on the album seem to bask in a comfortable sorrow, “Tropic Morning News” shows another side of the complex range of emotions that “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” takes the listener through.

Berninger explained that “Tropic Morning News” came to existence after he and his wife thought about “doom scrolling,” and the way the constant stream of news and information creates a ceaseless and problematic direct line of communication between the entire world and you.

He considers sensationalism in media and the way it has a hand in manipulation, singing, “You found the ache in my argument/ You couldn’t wait to get out of it/ You found the slush in my sentiment/ You made it sound so intelligent.”

Berninger sings about how there is calamity around constantly and the funny feeling that modernism has brought about where we all must still get up and “seize the day” while constantly being reminded of the atrocities around the world.

“I was suffering more than I let on/ The tropic morning news was on/ There’s nothing stopping me now/ From saying all the painful parts out loud,” the lyrics say.

“Tropic Morning News” is a song that frequents the airways of WUTK 90.3 The Rock as well.

If you enjoyed the first single release in “Tropic Morning New,” and prefer their more upbeat sound, another major standout track doubtlessly worth a listen is “Grease in Your Hair.” “Alien” and “Eucalyptus” are similar to these more distinct sounds as well.

“The Alcott” has naturally been the song with the most discussion surrounding it since the album’s release as the song features pop superstar Taylor Swift. The National and Swift collaborated in Swift’s ninth studio album “Evermore,” released in 2021 on the track “Coney Island.” Swift also collaborated with The National band member Aaron Dessner on other songs from her albums Folklore, Evermore and Midnights.

“The Alcott” sonically sounds incredibly similar to “Coney Island,” and the story of the song is similar as well, almost like a response, continuation or different perspective of “Coney Island.”

In Swift’s song off of “Evermore,” she thinks, while sitting on a bench in Coney Island, reminiscing and regretting a past relationship. “The Alcott” begins with Berninger going to meet the subject of the song at The Alcott, as he sings, “I’d go to the corner in the back/ Where you’d always be/ And there you are, sittin’ as usual/ With your golden notebook/ Writing something about someone/ Who used to be me.”

Swift once sang on evermore, “Over and over/ Lost again with no surprises/ Disappointments close your eyes/ And it gets colder and colder/ When the sun goes down.”

An anticipated event for Swifties and fans of The National alike, there was no part of the track that let down.

The finale in “Send For Me” summarizes and attempts to aid the heartsick feeling present in many avenues and meanings throughout “First Two Pages of Frankenstein.” With soul-crushing metaphors and the same somber and grim voice to deliver them, “Send For Me” is the cherry on top of a complete masterpiece.

Finally, The National leaves us with a perfect metaphor for the lack of control we have in life and the two conflicting ways we can respond to this fact that is explored throughout their latest album.

“If you’re ever in a psychiatric greenhouse/ With slip-on shoes/ Wipe a smile on the shatterproof windows/I’ll know what to do.”