The National’s album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, is unexceptional, but the songs with features greatly improve the album. 

The 11 songs in this album keep the same emotion and beat throughout every song, with almost everyone ending up quite similar. But there are four songs that include featured artists: two with Phoebe Bridgers, one with Taylor Swift, and one with Sufian Stevens. 

Swift and The National worked together to create “The Alcott”. This is the second time that Swift and Matt Berninger of The National have worked together, as they produced “Coney Island” on Swift’s Evermore album. 

On a recent show of The Eras Tour, Swift described another member of The National, Aaron Dessner, as a “collaborator version of a soulmate.” So this collaboration is more of friends working together, rather than just an attempt to get more listeners, and this is apparent when listeners hear the song. 

It is beautifully written, but it stands out because of the “arguing back and forth” singing style between them, which creates a great emotional piece. 

Bridgers is featured on “This Isn’t Helping” and “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend.” The National’s low, raspy voices create the perfect sound when paired with Bridgers’ high pitch. The lyrics describe the struggle of having to deal with your own thoughts, negative or positive. This song has a similar repetitive lyric style as many of Bridgers’ songs, this time repeating the line “your mind is not your friend.” 

Overall, while the only songs that stand out from the album are the features, the rest of it has meaningful lyrics and is still at least enjoyable to listen to.