Pretty much an indie movie soundtrack (but not in a bad way)
Matt Berninger, frontman of the American rock band The National, recently released his solo debut, Serpentine Prison. This 10-track indie rock album takes a decidedly down tempo, singer-songwriter approach in both its instrumentation and much of its lyrics. Mixed with Berninger’s distinctly rough voice, the album takes on the air of aged introspection and wistful regret for times and relationships long since passed.
More often than not, the album reinforces that yearning mood, fading into the background and becoming closer to an ambient experience along the lines of The War on Drugs’ 2014 project Lost in the Dream. As a result, it is serviceable and inoffensive. It feels in the vein of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ 2016 album Skeleton Tree without that album’s strong theme of the death of a loved one.
The part that is most interesting about this album is certainly Berninger’s distinctive voice as a singer, if not as songwriter. Lyrics often feel unimportant at best, and repetitive and slightly annoying at worst, particularly in “All for Nothing.” His voice is rich and aged in a way that feels at once filled with strength and a little brittle. Unfortunately, in a lot of the songs, particularly “One More Second,” his voice seems suffocated by the instrumentals. This leaves the album feeling as though it was supposed to have been an ambient instrumental project, but Berninger felt obligated to add lyrics which more often than not read like uninteresting poetry.
The album does have some highlights. All of the instrumentals are gorgeous, thanks to the multi-instrumental talents of the record’s producer, Booker T. Jones. The feature vocals on “Silver Springs” by session musician Gail Ann Dorsey, best known for playing bass in David Bowie’s band, provides that song with a real sense of history and relationship between the two characters. The songs “Oh Dearie” and “Collar of Your Shirt” also stick out, blending their emotional storytelling with some of the album’s best instrumentals. Multiple songs make use of a harmonica, leaning into folk and country aesthetics that fit with the melancholic brooding of the album particularly well.
Serpentine Prison feels akin to something one might hear in a soapy daytime drama or on a soundtrack to a romantic movie. While this can be interpreted as either a negative or a positive depending on the person, it does show the artistry inherent in that type of music. Songs used to underscore emotional beats need to at once hold emotional weight but also not feel too on the nose or intrusive. This balance demonstrates a nice subtlety in writing when Berninger is at his best.
Overall, Serpentine Prison is not a bad execution of the minimalist singer/songwriter aesthetic or the theme of growing older, growing apart, and addiction, but it does lack some originality and personal connection. It would serve nicely as ambient background noise for your artistic brooding needs or while driving around the countryside with the regretful nostalgia that can accompany getting older.
