The National present their surprise freewheeling, all-hands-on-deck 10th studio album, Laugh Track. If its companion piece, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, represented a rebuilding of trust between group members after 20+ years together, the vibrant, exploratory Laugh Track is both the product of that faith and a new statement of intent. Reveling in the license to radically upend its creative process, The National honed most of this material during live performances in 2023, and captured those invigorated versions in impromptu sessions at producer Tucker Martine’s Portland, OR studio, Flora Recording & Playback. The nearly eight-minute album closer, “Smoke Detector”, was recorded in June during a soundcheck at Vancouver’s Deer Lake Park, completing a body of work bristling with spontaneity and vintage rock energy that makes a perfect complement to the songs found on its more introspective predecessor.