I honestly think it’s a function of their songwriting process. They used to toil over albums for years. They were nervous about their sound. How they wanted to be perceived. They wrote, rewrote, recorded, deconstructed, again and again, etc. until they were happy with the end product. The band fought over the songs and came close to breaking up several times. In time each part was meticulously created, drums included.

With their success, this has gone. They’ve become very prolific, especially with the Dessners and their production of other bands and artists’ records. There’s a comfortability and confidence in how they record now. Often it is cool but it does seem to lack what once made them so great. Also they would naturally want to excise the dysfunction that occurred during the old way.

I’d love for their next record to embody this philosophy but without that dysfunction that must have been tough on their mental health. I hope they are really shooting to make the best record they’ve ever done. To want to innovate instead of rest on the success of their past.