The National share two new singles ‘Space Invader’ and ‘Alphabet City’

The National have released two new singles, ‘Space Invader’ and ‘Alphabet City – listen to them below.

The band announced the new releases on social media today (August 17) and shared the visualiser for ‘Alphabet City’.

The new tracks come four months after the release of their ninth studio album ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’, which NME said in a five-star review was “their best record in a decade“.

“Sometimes I wanna drive around and find you / And act like it’s a random thing,” frontman Matt Berninger sings on the ruminative ‘Alphabet City’ atop poignant instrumentals that gradually build in intensity. “I always wonder if you ever feel / Like I blew all chances of this happening.”

‘Space Invader’, meanwhile, is a sprawling seven-minute reflection on all the ‘what ifs?’ that swells to a climactic instrumental crescendo. “What if I’d never written the letter / I slipped into the sleeve of / The record I gave you? / What if I stayed on the / C train until Lafayette?”

Listen to both tracks below.

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Speaking to NME back in April ahead of the release of their new album, Bryce and Aaron Dessner explained how they felt the band had fallen into a rut.

“I think our relationships had become largely focused on the work on the music, but we’d lost track of each other,” guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bryce Dessner said. “We’ve said that things felt fragile before, but I think this time was different. I think it was quite real and I think that it was actually necessary. We needed to let it go and accept the possibility that it would end.”

“This record to me – and to all of us – feels like the culmination of everything we’ve learned. Aesthetically, we are really proud of where it sits,” Bryce added. “We sound more like ourselves maybe than we did in recent times”.

Reviewing the album, which includes features with Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens NME added that “this is The National back from their brink and at their absolute best”.

Elsewhere, Aaron Dessner recently praised friend and collaborator Swift for her ‘Eras Tour’, describing it as “the greatest show I’ve ever seen”.