I'll be honest with you; I'm not crazy about the second half of Trouble Will Find Me. After four amazing tracks packed into the top half of the line-up, the album unfortunately drops off in quality a bit. With the major exceptions being the electrifying "Graceless" and pitter-patter of "Pink Rabbits," the tracklist starting with "Heavenfaced" is somewhat lacking. There's nothing inherently bad about any of the songs, but there also isn't anything to pull you in either. Devoid of any kind of earth-shattering moments and leaning too heavily on Berninger's melancholy vocals, songs like "Slipped" and "Hard to Find" merely stretch out the record longer than it needed to be.
That being said, I still gave the album an 8.3. Why's this? Well, though the second division of Trouble Will Find Me is disappointing, four of the first five songs are awe-inspiring. "I Should Live in Salt," "Demons," "Don't Swallow the Cap," and "Sea of Love" more than make up for the rest of the album's shortcomings. All possess that trademark sound all of The National's best tracks do, except maximized to new heights.
