MUSIC PREMIERES
We catch up with The National’s Matt Berninger backstage a few hours before their Sunday night closing headline set at The Other Stage. Despite facing what could and should be another in a series of real ‘Glasto moments’ for the band, the frontman hasn’t much of a clue of what even he himself can expect. “I don’t like to know what’s going to be on the setlist, because every time is like a new flavoured gum ball,” he tells NME. “I get to take that little red pill and go to that song in a new way every time. If I knew what all the songs were then I wouldn’t be able to let go as much.”
There’s a sleepy vibe over Glastonbury tonight, with revellers seeming a little more reserved than usual after five days of music and hedonism. What better cure than indie statesmen The National – both a soothing balm and a rousing kick in the shins. When ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’ kicks in and Berninger pulls a Jarvis Cocker-esque svelte silhouette, you know he’s ready to give Worthy Farm a sloppy kiss goodbye. It’s the shot in the arm we need. As he puts it himself on the spritely ‘Tropic Morning News’, “something has now rapidly improved”.
If you like this band, you love this band. The affection is palpable and reciprocated – both through the generosity of what you’d call “bangers” if you’re part of the cult of these self-proclaimed “sad dads”, and through Berninger getting as physical as he can with as many people as possible. During their “creepiest song” ‘Conversation 16’, he enacts the lyric “I was afraid I’d eat your brains, because I’m evil” when he attempts to devour a really rather delighted chap on the front row. For ‘Terrible Love’, he bolts past the safety barrier to play Pied Piper to the devotees who follow him with their phones.
There’s the glorious early outing of indie classic ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, and well-landed cuts from 2023’s double album treat of ‘The First Two Pages Of Frankenstein‘ and ‘Laugh Track‘. Kate Stables of This Is The Kit assists ‘Rylan’, while the band tackle the bleak state of politics in the US with ‘The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness’ and ‘Fake Empire’ (“This song keeps getting more and more appropriate – that is really depressing”). This is a performance of tension and release. The Dessner twins hold their axes aloft as a mirror to one another and shred into the night as Berninger loses himself again and again.
He really is taking that little red pill with each track. It’s one thing to have artfully crafted the perfect setlist for such an occasion, but it’s another to have the ability to play each and every song like it could be the last one. When the finale does come with Berninger and the crowd all choked up for the devastating ‘About Today’, we leave knowing that they couldn’t have done more.
‘Don’t Swallow the Cap’
‘Eucalyptus’
‘Tropic Morning News’
‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’
‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness’
‘I Need My Girl’
‘Conversation 16’
‘Abel’
‘Alien’
‘Space Invader’
‘Day I Die’
‘Light Years’
‘Rylan’
‘England’
‘Graceless’
‘Fake Empire’
‘Mr. November’
‘Terrible Love’
‘About Today’
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MUSIC PREMIERES
Lykke Li didn’t hold back when speaking about the making of her sixth studio album, ‘The Afterparty’, during a listening session in Los Angeles earlier this year. “Let’s talk about the album. It was a motherfucker to make,” she admitted to the crowd. While balancing motherhood, the chaos of modern culture shaped by Trump and AI, and her own desire to create something more “extroverted, impulsive and chaotic” than ‘EYEYE’, as she previously shared with NME, the Swedish alt pop star arrived at a headspace that “feels like it’s 4am and the sun is going to rise”. The record captures that blurry final moment before regret, exhaustion and reality settle in, which makes it even more emotional considering she has hinted this could potentially be her final album.
There is something fitting about how brief the project feels. With only nine tracks running across 24 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Lykke immediately drops listeners into the atmosphere with opener ‘Not Gon Cry’, painting a picture of those lonely early morning hours with the line, “No angels here tonight, no dancing queens.” Alongside the shadowy pulse of ‘Happy Now’ and the twisted disco energy of ‘Lucky Now’, she revisits the emotional yet dance driven spirit of her earlier material while blending in the sharper, more confident attitude heard on ‘So Sad, So Sexy’ and the shimmering influence of her 2019 Mark Ronson collaboration ‘Late Night Feelings’.
The emotional fallout begins to settle in quickly. ‘Famous Last Words’ carries a lush orchestral sadness as Lykke reflects on lessons that only came after years of chaos and late nights, confessing, “I had to crash and burn to tell the tale.” Then comes ‘Future Fear’, a delicate acoustic track with robotic textures that stares directly into anxiety and uncertainty with the chilling question, “I’m going to a dark place, do you need anything?” Meanwhile, ‘So Happy I Could Die’ glows like sunrise after a sleepless night, holding onto fleeting moments as she sings about “slipping through the hourglass”.
Throughout the album, Lykke Li vividly captures the beauty and wreckage of reckless nights with the vulnerability that has always defined her music. On ‘Sick Of Love’, she channels heartbreak into revenge, wanting to “make you beg for it” after rejection in a way that feels spiritually connected to Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. One of the strongest moments arrives with ‘Knife In The Heart’, a track that fully embraces her desire to become the “rock god” and “fuck boy” she spoke about, firing back at anyone who tries to tear her down with the words “you can spit, you can walk on me” while delivering one of the catchiest songs she has created in years.
Closing track ‘Euphoria’ leaves behind the same bittersweet feeling that runs through the rest of the album. With sweeping strings, pulsing beats and emotional intensity, Lykke Li reminds listeners that nothing lasts forever as she sings, “Player play your song, waste the night away”. Like the fading energy of the perfect night out, ‘The Afterparty’ ends in a haze of beauty and uncertainty. If this truly is her farewell, she leaves with one final intoxicating statement, though it still feels like there could be another chapter waiting.
