I disagree. Who care’s if, at first blush, the sound isn’t a radical departure. Refining how songs are crafted, recorded and produced can be as rewarding “new territory” as there is. I’m also unsure what new ground The National would cover… maybe they should go dub step?
Personally, I feel like there is a heartbeat at the bottom of the songs they make – especially in the drums and bass. This track is an indication that they’re really focusing in on that heartbeat and seeing where that takes them. If this was your band and that was your approach, I reckon that’d feel like plenty of new territory.

This is a great discussion. I really think the Lala music service was on to something pretty great before Apple bought it/shut it down. You could listen to the album once, for free, and then pay a small fee to stream it forever (a web album) or purchase the tracks for download for a pretty moderate price (usually $6.99 or so). Spotify’s model could do something similar.
The freedom of being able to listen to the music before making an purchase is amazing, as is the ability to discover new artists via a “Similar Artists” module. I just don’t think these services should be free, necessarily. It’s one thing to put ads in the free service, but at that point the majority of revenue, I’d imagine, is being absorbed by the service itself – without making it back to the artist. There really should never be a case where an intermediary is making money off another’s work. This goes for music sales, ticket sales, etc.

I think this is damn good and catchy as hell. I can’t believe there are some people still complaining that Death Cab has decided not to remake “We Have the Facts” a billion times. This is smart pop music. Same as it ever was.