Matt Berninger
Get Sunk
Book/Concord Records [2025]
“More open than ornate, Berninger’s latest lets emotional weight float like a message in a bottle.”
Album Overview: Matt Berninger is best known as the baritone voice and lyrical anchor of The National, the band that’s made melancholy feel cinematic for the past two decades. But he’s never been one to stay still. From the offbeat EL VY collaboration with Brent Knopf to his solo debut Serpentine Prison in 2020, Berninger has spent recent years exploring new sounds and new ways of working. A former ad man and visual artist, he brings that creative restlessness to everything he touches—including his lyrics, which often start life scribbled across odd objects or half-buried in old notebooks.
Get Sunk is the sound of someone clearing out mental clutter and finding music in the mess. After moving from Los Angeles to Connecticut with his family, Berninger found himself writing again—on baseballs, in the barn, surrounded by strange artifacts and quiet. The album pulls from scattered sketches and reassembled ideas, but the result feels intentional. These songs don’t chase resolution—they’re more about sitting with contradiction: love and disconnection, nostalgia and numbness. If Serpentine Prison felt like structured soul-searching, Get Sunk is more abstract and free-floating, but just as emotionally grounded.
Musical Style: The vibe here is understated but rich. Get Sunk leans into sparse arrangements—acoustic guitars, ambient keys, brushed percussion, and the occasional swell of brass or harmony vocals. There are moments that flirt with folk, soft rock, and lo-fi indie pop, but everything stays low to the ground, focused on mood over movement. It’s an album that favors emotional layering over sonic peaks—a record built for late nights, long walks, and moments of quiet unraveling.
Evolution of Sound: If Serpentine Prison played like a vintage soul confessional, Get Sunk feels more like a collage. Recorded gradually with producer Sean O’Brien, the album grew out of weekly sessions that allowed space for experimentation. The looseness is a strength: ocean sounds drift in, children’s voices echo in the background, and the instrumentation shifts gently without ever demanding attention. Contributions from Walter Martin, Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), and Booker T. Jones give the record its subtle texture and warmth. It’s less polished, more personal—a sound that wanders, but never loses its thread.
Artists with Similar Fire: If you dig the hushed storytelling of Bill Callahan or the emotional haze of Hand Habits, this will hit you just right. There are shades of Damien Jurado, Hayden, and Bon Iver in the mix, with nods to Radiohead’s softer edges and Wilco’s late-night introspection. It’s also easy to hear echoes of Iron & Wine and Leif Vollebekk in the album’s more ambient, moody passages.
Pivotal Tracks: “Inland Ocean” sets the tone with distant vocals and steady keys, creating a kind of emotional drift. “Bonnet of Pins” stands out for its vivid, quietly devastating details—Nabokov cocktails, styrofoam cups, and the slow ache of regret. “Breaking Into Acting” pairs Meg Duffy’s voice with Berninger’s in a hushed meditation on performative love and self-deception. “Silver Jeep,” with vocals from Julia Laws (Ronboy), feels like flipping through old photos—fuzzy, emotional, and unresolved. And closer “Times of Difficulty” offers the record’s soft-spoken thesis in one line: “The way the sky thinks of the sea.” It’s about connection that doesn’t need to be clean to be real.
Lyrical Strength: Berninger has always been more interested in tone than tidy explanations, and Get Sunk leans into that instinct. These lyrics feel lifted from real life and half-dreams—geodes, Osage orange trees, vodka in plastic cups. The writing invites you to sit with the tension instead of sorting it out. He’s funny, self-aware, and unafraid to mix poetry with the mundane. Nothing feels forced. The metaphors stretch but don’t snap, and the emotional weight hits harder because it’s carried so lightly.
Final Groove: Get Sunk doesn’t try to dazzle you—it lingers, like a late-night conversation you can’t quite shake. It’s a record that values atmosphere over hooks, honesty over answers. For longtime fans of Berninger’s songwriting, this feels like a deep breath: less polished, more personal, and deeply human. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it lets things roll in their own time. And if this is what recalibration sounds like, it’ll be exciting to hear where he drifts next.
MATT BERNINGER REVIEW HISTORY
Serpentine Prison (2020)
THE NATIONAL REVIEW HISTORY
Rome (2024) / Laugh Track (2023) / First Two Pages Of Frankenstein (2023) / I Am Easy To Find (2019) / Sleep Well Beast (2017) / A Lot Of Sorrow [Box Set] (2015) / Trouble Will Find Me (2013)
MATT BERNINGER LINKS
Website | Instagram | Bandcamp | Facebook | Concord Records
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