The National Take on a Cryptic Aesthetic with New Track ‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness’

There’s a new music video for The National’s fresh lead single The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness’ for their upcoming album Sleep Well Beast. The first release since their 2013 album Trouble Will Find Me, their seventh LP is way way overdue.

The track definitely keeps to the band’s trademark heavy heartbreak theme with front man, Matt Berninger, describing the album “it’s about marriage, and it’s about marriages falling apart”. The song is more upbeat than the tracks from their past two albums, and by upbeat I mean it’s more dynamic-sounding, not that it is in anyway chirpier. Pushing into Radiohead vibes, this guy has had a shitty hand in love, and you can hear the disappointment ring through his voice with the line “You said we’d only die of lonely secrets”.

The music video is directed by software artist Casey Reas. Glitch aesthetic and electric blue hues, I have no idea what to make of the cryptic video. Either way, with or without the inverted colour scheme, this is a really beautiful track. Check it out for yourself below.

The album ‘Sleep Well Beast’ is due to be released September 8th.