''Serpentine Prison'' is the debut solo studio album by

Matt Berninger Matthew Donald Berninger (, born February 13, 1971) is an American singer, primarily known as the frontman and lyricist of indie rock band The National. In 2014, he also formed the EL VY project with Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls and Menomena. ...

, lead singer and co-songwriter of The National, released on October 16, 2020. It was produced by

Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artis ...

and released on Book Records, a new imprint of

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

formed by Berninger and Jones. ''Serpentine Prison'' was nominated for

Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize out ...

at the

64th Annual Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, ...

. The album was designed and art directed by Dale Doyle at Holotype, and painted by Michael Carson.

Background and recording

Berninger initially planned to release a covers album. Inspired by

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

's 1978 covers album ''

Stardust Stardust may refer to: * A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space Entertainment Songs * “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael * “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974 * “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012 * ...

'', which was produced by

, Berninger contacted Jones for assistance in making his own covers album. Berninger provided Jones with demos of covers and original songs, and eventually decided on an originals album. Four of the covers they recorded were released on the album's deluxe edition. ''Serpentine Prison'' was recorded at Earthstar Creation Center in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...

. Additional recording was completed at Knobworld in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

; Silent Partner in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

; Cecelia's in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

; and Long Pond in the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The album is dedicated to Berninger's grandmother Elaine and to his college professor Gordon Salchow.

Release and promotion

''Serpentine Prison'' was first announced by Berninger on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

on October 18, 2019, the day after he released his song "Walking on a String" featuring

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter. Her indie folk music typically centers on acoustic guitar and Electronic music, electronic production, with melancholic lyrical themes. She has won four Grammy Aw ...

. The album was officially announced on May 20, 2020, with a scheduled release date for October 2, 2020. The album's title track was released the same day as a single. "Distant Axis" was released as a single on July 17, 2020. A third single, "One More Second", was released on September 10, 2020. The album's release date was pushed back to October 16, 2020. Berninger performed "One More Second" on ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

'' on October 22, 2020. A deluxe edition of the album, featuring four cover versions and two new original songs, was released digitally on March 12, 2021. The bonus tracks were previously only available on the limited-edition double vinyl issue of the album, which was released the same day as the standard edition. The four covers include

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

's " European Son",

Bettye Swann Bettye Swann (born Betty Jean Champion; October 24, 1944), also known as Betty Barton, is an American soul singer. She is best known for her 1967 hit song " Make Me Yours". Career Swann was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on October 24, 1944, as ...

's "

Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" is a song written by John D. Loudermilk. It was first released in 1962 by Don Cherry (singer/golfer), Don Cherry, as a country song and again as a doo-wop in 1967 by the group The Casinos on its album of the same nam ...

Morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...

's "In Spite of Me", and

Eddie Floyd Eddie Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the No. 1 R&B hit song " Knock on Wood". Early life and education Floy ...

's "Big Bird".

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Serpentine Prison'' received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 77 based on 20 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Candace McDuffie of ''

Paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

'' wrote, "''Serpentine Prison'' displays infinite promise from an artist who has already given us a catalogue that has made a lasting impact on rock music as we know it."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

. Musicians *

– vocals (all tracks), lyrics, melodies *

– Hammond B3 organ (tracks 1, 3–16), piano (tracks 2, 5, 6, 11, 12), electric piano (track 4), backing vocals (tracks 4, 11, 12, 14), bass (track 6), OP-1 synthesizer (track 11), electric guitar (tracks 13, 14) *

Scott Devendorf Scott Devendorf is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the bass guitarist for the American indie rock band the National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Devendorf is also a member of the indie rock project LNZND ...

– bass (tracks 1, 3) * Harrison Whitford – electric guitar (tracks 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 14), lap steel guitar (track 1), acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 3, 6–10, 12, 13, 16), slide guitar (tracks 4, 9), bass (tracks 4, 5, 6, 10, 15) *

Andrew Bird Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing musi ...

– violin (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, 9), loops (track 2), backing vocals (track 2) * Sean O'Brien – lap steel guitar (tracks 2, 4, 7, 11, 14, 16), acoustic guitar (tracks 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 15), gang vocals (track 9) * Walter Martin – electric guitar (tracks 2, 4, 8, 11, 15), bass (tracks 2, 12), synthesizer (track 2), percussion (track 2), backing vocals (track 2) * Hayden Desser – piano (tracks 1, 7), acoustic guitar (track 1) * Matt Barrick – drums (all tracks), percussion (tracks 1–11, 13–16) *

Gail Ann Dorsey Gail Ann Dorsey (born November 20, 1962) is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she performed regularly in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's last tour in 2004. Aside from playing bass, sh ...

– lead vocals (track 5), backing vocals (tracks 3, 4, 6, 11–16), bass (track 1) * Kyle Resnick – trumpet (tracks 4, 5, 7, 9–11, 14–16), backing vocals (tracks 6, 15) * Jamie Heaslip – gang vocals (track 9) * Mike Brewer – acoustic guitar (tracks 4, 15), bass (tracks 8, 11, 14, 16) * Brent Knopf – piano (tracks 3, 9), guitars (track 9), synthesizer (track 9), backing vocals (track 9) * Matt Sheehy – acoustic guitar (track 3), bass (track 9) *

Mickey Raphael Michael Siegfried Raphael (born November 7, 1951) is an American harmonica player, music producer and actor likely best known for his work with Willie Nelson, with whom he has toured as part of The Family since 1973. He has performed or record ...

– harmonica (tracks 4, 5, 9–11, 14–16), bass harmonica (track 6) * Ben Lanz – trombone (tracks 4, 5, 7, 9–11, 14–16), bass (track 7), piano (track 16) * Teddy Jones – electric guitar (tracks 13, 14) Production * Booker T. Jones – production (all tracks), arrangement (all tracks) * Sean O'Brien – recording (all tracks), mixing (all tracks), additional production (all tracks) * Matt Barrick – additional engineering * Bella Blasko – additional engineering * Walter Martin – additional engineering * John X Volaitis – additional engineering Art * Dale Doyle – album design * Michael Carson – artwork * Chris Sgroi – photography * Tom Berninger – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2020 debut albums Albums produced by Booker T. Jones Concord Records albums