The National have shared a melancholy new song, ‘Eucalyptus’ – check it out below.

The track’s release was announced yesterday and marks the third taster the band have shared, after ‘New Order T-Shirt’ and ‘Tropic Morning News’, to be taken from the band’s upcoming album ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’. The album is scheduled to drop on April 28 via 4AD and will feature collaborations with Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sufjan Stevens. 

Per a press release, Bryce Dessner sent the song to Matt Berninger a long time ago, which he later added lyrics to after remembering the song. He then asked to play it during a soundcheck before their Capitol Theatre show last year.

“We rehearsed it twice without ever having had a demo and played it to the audience that night, and what you hear on the album was partially recorded during that performance,” Berninger explained. “It’s got this raw, immediate feeling, and it made sense to leave the rough edges instead of trying to perfect them.”

He added: “Throughout the record there’s a lot of looking into the abyss and wondering if a relationship has run its course. “Eucalyptus” is about a couple splitting up their possessions after a breakup – like, ‘What are we going to do with the spring water we get delivered, what’s going to happen to all these plants?’ It’s about all those little things you end up having to think about when you’ve become so connected to someone.”

Listen to ‘Eucalyptus’ below:

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The band have debuted several other new songs in the same way, including ‘Tropic Morning News (Haversham)’ and Bon Iver collaboration ‘Weird Goodbyes’, as well as other as yet unreleased songs such as ‘Grease In Your Hair (Birdie)’, and ‘Bathwater (Mount Auburn)’.

Speaking to NME about new music last year, The National’s guitarist Bryce Dessner said: “What I can say is that we’re at a high watermark in terms of our creativity as a band. There’s a lot happening, and a lot of music. We’re allowing ourselves to dream about it, take risks, try things and give the songs time to develop.”

Explaining that the new material featured traces of elements from their past records, he added: “The songs are vulnerable and direct like on ‘Boxer’, but with experimental moments like ‘Sleep Well Beast’ and raw moments like ‘Alligator’. In a way, it’s the whole history of the band but with a new exploration in it. Some of them are our most accessible, others are more poetic with different arrangements.”

The National will be returning to the UK and Ireland in September for a run of headline shows, with Soccer Mommy set to support. You can see the full list of dates below and buy your tickets here.

SEPTEMBER
21 – Dublin, 3Arena
23 – Leeds, First Direct Arena
24 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
26 – London, Alexandra Palace
27 – London, Alexandra Palace

The band’s guitarist Aaron Dessner was also recently revealed to have writing and producer credits on Ed Sheeran‘s forthcoming album ‘-‘.