The National are to release a new album in May.

The Brooklyn band unveiled the news on their Twitter account yesterday (February 25), and have also announced a series of US tourdates and European festival shows taking place in June and July, as listed below. No UK shows have been announced yet.

Speaking to Uncut for our 2013 Album Preview, The National’s singer Matt Berninger said, “We’re a little worried, because we’re more excited at this point than we have ever been on a record. They were always very slow and difficult to make, with lots of anxiety. During Boxer, Aaron… I don’t know if technically he had a nervous breakdown but his lung collapsed. High Violet wasn’t that bad, but this time around we realised we should just enjoy the process. Everyone is pretty optimistic.”

Berninger added, “The theme that is coming up in a lot of songs is death and dying. But there are a lot of fun songs about it. I wouldn’t call them dark. Maybe its about being a husband and a father – before that, I wasn’t so afraid of death. Once you have people who depend on you, you start worrying about your mortality, not being about to protect them. But there’s not much anxiety in the songs, they’re just wondering about it, thinking it through. As the songs come together, all these subtle references about the passing into some other phase, or ending, keep coming into songs, in kind of funny ways. It’s a fun record about dying!”

The National will play:

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY (June 5)

Bunbury Festival, Cincinnati, OH (14)