If the last time you engaged with Matt Berninger’s songwriting was through the most recent National albums, “Get Sunk’s” backstory and overarching mood will sound familiar. In 2020, the frontman struggled with a long period of writer’s block and depression that informed 2023’s “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” and its surprise companion, “Laugh Track.” But while Berninger’s second solo album, the follow-up to his gorgeously refined 2020 debut “Serpentine Prison”, emerged from a similar headspace, the sinking here happens deeper in his subconscious, words slipping out of the blurry space of memory, sleepiness, or a complete breakdown. Working with producer Sean O’Brien and a cast of musicians including Booker T Jones, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and Julia Laws (Ronboy), he keeps himself right on the edge.
“In 2023, after 10 years of living in Los Angeles, Matt Berninger (along with his wife and teenage daughter) moved to Connecticut. This change of scene suited him; he began to spend his days outside, painting, reading, smoking weed and listening to music, much of it his own. He wrote lyrics all over old baseballs, and arranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does.
Throughout his work with The National, Berninger is known for his contemplative narratives in which characters peer over the cliff’s edge. He has always been forthcoming about his own mental and emotional pitfalls. “Our hearts are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,” he explains. “I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.” In 2020 he went through “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust. I just got sick of of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’ ” For him, identity is amorphous and ever-evolving, and stretches beyond individuality. This is the driving force of his second solo album “Get Sunk”.
Under water, everything moves in slow motion and Berninger saw his creative voice slipping away. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. “Get Sunk” is the inhale, bringing blurry memories to the surface.”
Matt Berninger new solo album, “Get Sunk”. Working with producer Sean O’Brien, the National frontman enlisted the help of of friends and musicians including Booker T Jones, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Julia Laws (Ronboy), Kyle Resnick (The National), Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Mike Brewer (Nancy), Walter Martin (Walkmen), Paul Maroon (Walkmen) and Harrison Whitford. The results are more dynamic and less carefully gracious than his solo debut “Serpentine Prison“, which makes it a sea worth diving into, even if you know, more or less, exactly what you’re gonna get. You can stare at one thing forever – it’s nothing till you feel it rush through your bones
