Remember, Matt Berninger has always viewed writing songs as something alive, not static. The National frontman’s latest solo release, the Type It Up EP, is no exception. Ken Nation, out on the road supporting his 2025 album Get Sunk, assembled a brief EP of numbers that developed and evolved under the spotlight of back to back shows and the spirits of the crowds.
This five-song digital EP, released via Book and Concord Records, combines three original compositions with two covers that had previously established themselves individually. It kicks off with the prior single Martini Me Fatso, then continues with the new Type It Up, and ends with the new Ask for Water, which is accompanied by a music video directed by longtime partner in crime Chris Sgroi. Completing the collection are Berninger ‘s rendition of New Order ‘s Blue Monday, original to Amazon Music Original, and a take of the Velvet Underground ‘s Who Loves the Sun, which features Rosanne Cash, first broadcast on Australian TV show Sunny Nights. The December vinyl release will include an acoustic live performance of Martini Me Fatso recorded in Australia.
What makes the album seem incredibly personal is his candid detail about how it was created. The songs, he said, came from the creative tide of the Get Sunk tour. week after week, minute by minute, he was tweaking and tweaking lyrics and arrangements in direct response to what was working on the road and what fans were saying via the Internet. The album’s title track originally had a different name, Black Letter Font. A certain line, “That would look good in a black letter font, ” was repeatedly confused and misrepresented as a suggestive reference to black leather thongs. Rather than correct the misunderstanding, he rewrote the song’s chorus: I’m more of a black linen suit guy, he quipped.
That readiness to adapt as the moment demands has always been part of the appeal of Berninger. Much of the emotional detail in his work with The National has been painstakingly considered yet he’s never learned any parlor trick that will save a lyric from being questioned. With Serpentine Prison in 2020 and the warmer Get Sunk last year, he’s maintained this space that feels so much like a happy accident: unselfconscious and refined by caution. Type It Up is a more assertive extension of the raw energy that was felt in the immediate aftermath of Get Sunk, an album that already indicated a more sunny, open sound after some dark times.
The covers sit easily in their new context. Berninger’s voice, that sturdily familiar baritone that sometimes seems inclined to weariness, and sometimes wry amusement, introduces a subtle variety of tone to Blue Monday’s electronic throb, the delicate sadness of “Who Loves the Sun.” Rosanne Cash, on the latter tune, offers another dot of memoried musical goodness. These aren’t radical reimaginings as much as they are contemplative seductions of songs that clearly words matter to him.
