MATT BERNINGER SHARES ALBUM OPENER “INLAND OCEAN”
Matt Berninger, the frontman and lyricist for The National, has shared another pre-release track from his forthcoming album, the opener “Inland Ocean.” The song, featuring backing vocals from Ronboy (Julia Laws), matches propulsive, marching keys with a choral chant. Berninger often drifts to water in his lyrics on this album, though he says this is not an intentional motif, but rather a more expansive metaphor: “God loves the inland ocean / Lost cause, I have no emotion.” “Inland Ocean” was co-written with Walter Martin (The Walkmen). Berninger’s second solo album, Get Sunk, is out May 30th through Book/Concord Records.
Berninger worked on Get Sunk with Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Sean O’Brien, who also co-wrote many of the songs. With its rich sonic landscape and poignant lyrics, Get Sunk is a testament to Berninger's artistry and his ability to capture the complexities of the human experience. Its sonic world blossomed with the help of numerous musicians and friends including Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Julia Laws (Ronboy), Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut), Garret Lang, Sterling Laws, Booker T Jones, Harrison Whitford, Mike Brewer, and The Walkmen’s Walter Martin and Paul Maroon. Most of them worked together with Berninger and O’Brien in a Silverlake, CA, basement studio.
Berninger just concluded a trio of sold-out, intimate shows across the UK, joined by Sean O’Brien and Julia Laws. The Yorkshire Post praised his performance, noting, “His raw power seems destined to survive stepping out alone,” while The Mail on Sunday gave the show a rave review, writing, “His rumbling baritone makes grown women swoon. His eloquent sorrow makes grown men feel less alone.” The Upcoming described the experience as “so close-knit and reverent that scarcely anyone pulled out their phone to film… the concertgoers were religiously enraptured by the show.”
Get Sunk’s first single, “Bonnet of Pins,” highlights Berninger’s knack for world-building, pointing to the tiny details that make it all palpable. There’s cigarettes and styrofoam cups filled with “Nabokov cocktails,” miscommunication and sorrow. It’s a reminder that grief can also be a little funny. He followed it up with the tender “Breaking into Acting” Feat. Habits.
LISTEN TO “BREAKING INTO ACTING” FEAT. HAND HABITS HERE
WATCH VIDEO HERE
"simple, charming, and just quirky enough to work"
—Stereogum
"a strangely tender, quietly devastating duet about the artifice of feeling. It’s not a dramatic song, but it is full of drama—worn lightly, like a thrifted coat that still smells like someone else"
—Paste
LISTEN TO “BONNET OF PINS” HERE
“it’s robust folk-rock with orchestral backup”
—New York Times “Playlist”
"a bit of stadium-sized indie rock with driving drums and live-wire guitars that steadily build with a burst of horns and choral backing vocals."
—Rolling Stone
"It’s muscular and satisfying, unapologetic in playing to his strengths."
—Esquire’s “12 Best Songs of 2025 So Far”
"The lead single from Matt Berninger’s next solo album comes out of the gate brimming with momentum. Berninger’s familiar croak is back in Alligator mode here, and the female backing vocals buoy him more artfully than anything on I Am Easy To Find. The band sounds refined yet vibrantly alive. When that horn section kicks in — woo!”
—Stereogum “5 Best Songs of the Week”
"propulsive and immediately appealing"
—Brooklyn Vegan
"Boasts the lived-in texture of a Neil Young song, but delivered with a rush of rock fervor that sits distinctly in The National’s sonic palette. Beaming, arena-ready guitar shines even brighter thanks to spacious synths, bringing light to the narrator’s somewhat dark vignette about encountering an old flame"
—Paste
In his work with The National, Berninger is known for contemplative narratives in which characters peer over the cliff’s edge. He has always been forthcoming about his own mental and emotional pitfalls. “Our hearts are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,” he explains. “I can’t resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.”
In 2020, he went through “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust. I just got sick of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’” For Berninger, identity is amorphous, ever-evolving and stretches beyond individuality. This is the driving force of his second solo album. Underwater, everything moves in slow motion, and Berninger glimpsed his creative voice slipping away. But sometimes we have to drown to remember how to breathe. Get Sunk is the inhale, bringing blurry realizations to the surface.
Berninger’s “gorgeous” (Rolling Stone) solo debut, Serpentine Prison, came out in early 2020, produced by the legendary Booker T. Jones. While he says the follow-up is not necessarily an autobiographical album, the narrator is processing how he became himself. Berninger is an expert in what it feels like to lose all bravery, and Get Sunk points to an undulating reflection in the water. It’s about realizing that you are not yourself without a thousand others: parents, friends, siblings, spouses and exes, college roommates, childhood best friends, cousins, kids and even strangers.
Inspired by the flora and fauna of his new home in Connecticut after years living in Los Angeles, Berninger wrote lyrics and drew all over baseballs, and rearranged dust-covered items in his barn into strange and surreal works of art. It felt good to be creating and to understand why he loves what he does. “I was able to get the blurry picture as close to just right for me,” he says. That the picture ever comes into full focus isn’t the point; it’s by being happy that we can make out anything at all.
Berninger has also announced North American and UK/EU dates in support of Get Sunk, which will begin May 19 at The Showbox in Seattle and pick up August 22 in Dublin, Ireland. On tour, he will be backed by the core band that recorded Get Sunk, including Ronboy (Julia Laws) who will open the shows. Visit mattberninger.com for more information. VIP packages including soundcheck access will be available for most shows.
