The National Hint at New Music in Ominous Teaser

A short clip released on The National’s YouTube channel promises a little more Radiohead-esque menace in their new music. The video, set to a creaking guitar, features a CNN-style newsreel displaying “Sleep Well Beast” and below, “The System Only Sleeps In Total Darkness” in front of a heat-sensitive camera’s footage of a house. It seems that the band’s new music might take a darker turn away from the sweet “I Need My Girl” tunes of yesteryear.

What does the video mean? Well, there’s no official announcement to accompany it, but in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s fairly common practice for indie bands to tease their forthcoming albums with mysterious videos like this before officially announcing them—think Alt-J or Radiohead. If The National’s video is any indication, their new music will be far more in line with those two bands than anyone would have expected.

Watch the clip above, check out a new song that The National debuted live in January below and find Paste Cloud audio from their 2007 Daytrotter Session beneath that. You can also listen to a new single from The National guitarist Bryce Dessner’s side project with Sufjan Stevens here.