The National announce new live double album “Rome” and share four tracks from the record

The National have announced plans to release a new live album.

The 21-track digital and double vinyl LP set, titled “Rome,” was recorded live at the Cavea in the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in the Italian city on June 3 of this year.

The release, which was mixed by long-time collaborator Peter Katis, will also be released as a three-color triple LP with five additional songs to complete the 26-song set on colored vinyl, available through the band's Cherry Tree fan club. It's out December 13th and can be pre-ordered here.

As a taster, the band released four tracks from the record today (September 23) on a new EP titled “NTL RM EP I,” which includes the tracks “I Need My Girl,” “Lemonworld,” “The Geese of Beverly Road,” and “Lit Up.” You can listen to it below.

Other live tracks that will be heard on “Rome” include “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”, “England” and “Fake Empire”, as well as newer tracks such as “Eucalyptus”, “New Order T-Shirt”, “Tropic Morning News” and “Smoke Detector”.

The full track listing of the digital/double LP version of “Rome” is as follows:

1. “Outliers”
2. “Eucalyptus”
3. “Tropical Morning News”
4. “New Order T-Shirt”
5. “Do not swallow the cap”
6. “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
7. “The system only dreams in total darkness”
8. “I need my girl”
9. “Lemon World”
10. “The Geese of Beverly Road”
11. “Illuminated”
12. “Aliens”
13. “Humiliation”
14. “Murder Me, Rachael”
15. “England”
16. “Graceless”
17. “False Empire”
18. “Smoke detector”
19. “Mr. November”
20. “Terrible Love”
21. “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”

Elsewhere, the band recently said NME that they were in a “very creative space” and in the “garden phase” of writing new material.

The band released two albums in 2023 – “The First Two Pages Of Frankenstein” and “Laugh Track” – but that didn’t stop new ideas from emerging.

“There is a lot of music, which means we will be playing a lot of new music,” said bassist Scott Devendorf NME in Glastonbury. “We really tried to make the setlist very varied and to be more dynamic that way because it's interesting for everyone.”

When asked if there will be more music coming from this universe, Matt Berninger said, “No, we kind of purged ourselves. When we started writing again, I wrote almost everything that was in the folders and made a song out of everything. Now the folders are filling up. I've written a lot, but I think we're going to take it nice and slow. The garden is full of seeds. But we don't know when it's going to start blooming or anything. We're in a very creative state – we're in a gardening phase. Gardening at night!”

The National are currently on their “Zen Diagram” tour in the USA with The War On Drugs.

They will perform at the United Center in Chicago tomorrow (September 24), with additional stops planned in Michigan, Utah and Seattle, as well as various dates in Canada, before the tour ends in Los Angeles and Mexico City in October.

Click here to purchase tickets and see a full list of upcoming shows below.

SEPTEMBER
24 – CHICAGO, Chicago Board of Trade Building
25 – STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan Lottery Amphitheater at Freedom Hill
26-MADISON, Breese Stevens Field
28 – ENGLEWOOD, Fiddler's Green Amphitheater
29 – SALT LAKE CITY, Granary Live

OCTOBER
1 – SEATTLE, Climate Pledge Arena
2 – VANCOUVER, Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
3 – PORTLAND, Moda Center
5 – NAPA, The Mertage
6 – BERKELEY, The Greek Theatre
7 – LOS ANGELES, Hollywood Bowl
10 – MEXICO CITY, Palacio De Los Deportes