The Philadelphia sextet layer guitars and keyboards into a reverb-soaked swirl, landing at their trademark sweet spot of New Wave and heartland rock. Frontman Adam Granduciel croons abstract imagery about wires, falling dominos and “a demon at a doorway waiting to be born.” The track concludes with an atmospheric guitar that stretches out for nearly two minutes.
“Pain” is one of two songs the band tracked almost entirely live as a unit on their first night working with engineer Shawn Everett in Los Angeles. The band, utilizing this organic recording style, aimed to make A Deeper Understanding more of a true “band record.”
The War on Drugs previously previewed the LP, came out August 25th, with lead single “Holding On” and album tracks “Thinking of a Place” and “Strangest Thing.” The band performed “Pain” in August on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The War On Drugs released single ‘Holding On’ as the Philadelphia-born band ramp up excitement around their latest album. Everything got bigger for The War On Drugs in 2017. If ever the “indie-rock” label fit these Philly daydreamers, they’ve shed the qualifier to become one of America’s leading rock acts, period. It wasn’t just their fan base that grew this year: A Deeper Understanding feels built for big crowds, from the dreamy, 11-minute sprawl of “Thinking Of A Place” to genuine song-of-the-year candidate “Strangest Thing,” which builds and builds to multiple crescendos, slathering some stadium-sized riffs over its infectious hook, soaring synths, and frontman Adam Granduciel’s mythically romantic musings.
The standouts would conquer the charts in a more guitar-dominated era, but as with any other War On Drugs release, the pleasures here are cumulative—this is a richly enveloping listen, front to melancholy back. As for the bugaboo of influence: A Deeper Understanding doesn’t dispel the Dylan and Springsteen comparisons The War On Drugs has been provoking since back when Kurt Vile was still with the band.
Having released the track “Thinking Of A Place” for Record Store Day 2017, their first new music since their acclaimed 2014 album Lost In A Dream, The War On Drugs have kept their cards close to their chest in regards to the record . “I kept thinking about an LA record and what that means,” frontman Adam Granduciel told said in an interview with Pitchfork. “To me, it means the second Warren Zevon record, but it could also mean Tonight’s The Night. Then I threw my hands in the air and just wanted to make a record with my friends, wherever that may be.”
For much of the three and a half year period since the release of Lost In The Dream, The War On Drugs‘ frontman, Adam Granduciel, led the charge for his Philadelphia-based sextet as he holed up in studios in New York and Los Angeles to write, record, edit, and tinker-but, above all, to busy himself in work. Teaming up with engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer), Granduciel challenged the notion of what it means to create a fully realized piece of music in today’s modern landscape. Calling on his bandmates – bassist Dave Hartley, keyboarding Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and JonNatchez — continuously throughout the process, the result is a “band record” in the noblest sense, featuring collaboration, coordination, and confidence at every turn. Through those years of relocation, the revisiting and reexamining of endless hours of recordings, unbridled exploration and exuberance, Granduciel’s gritty love of his craft succeeded in pushing the band to great heights.
A young punk and a green giant hit the road in the goofy yet poignant new video for the War on Drugs‘ “Nothing to Find.” The track appears on the Philadelphia outfit’s new album, A Deeper Understanding.
Still riding the momentum from the recent release of their acclaimed fourth album A Deeper Understanding, The War on Drugs have shared the video for “Nothing to Find,” starring young actress Sophia Lillis (of IT fame), who embarks on a road trip with some sort of plant covered alien and car. Throughout the journey, Lillis’ character tries to keep her mate trimmed and watered, but no amount of care can stave off the inevitable march of nature. As the sun falls, the green giant – many of his leaves now brown – collapses to the ground. When Lillis’ character wakes up the next morning, her partner has returned to the earth, leaving a lone branch in her arms.
‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War On Drugs, available now.
It doesn’t take a musicologist to detect the influence of Dylan on Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs. When he sings, Granduciel leans into a line with the same needling inflections as Bob, aping his world-weary wheeze as well. The music Granduciel writes can’t help but make you think of another Dylan-devotee Mark Knopfler.
The War on Drugs explores the dreamy realms Dire Straits once roamed. The songs tend to last long—at least six minutes a piece, and up to eleven on the new album—luxuriating in sumptuous production, gripping melodies and guitars that glisten. Granduciel has been honing his valorized view of classic rock over four albums now, culminating in the new . He formed his band in Philadelphia in 2005, though they didn’t release their debut until three years later. The disc, titled , Wagon Wheel Blues glazed through an ambient haze. Granduciel has been clarifying his sound ever since. The latest album, the band’s first on a major label, shows the escalating budget in the lush production.
It also focuses Granduciel approach to his guitar. In his recordings, he favors sustained notes and repeated refrains over the more elaborate extensions he allows live. Luckily, the parts he writes for his sterling instrument have enough urgency to make his repetitions hypnotic. Some songs feature freer guitar work and a faster pace, like “Holding On” , with its bossy bass, and fleet drums. But more often the music holds to a measured beat and a cowed mood, mirroring lyrics that explore what Granduciel calls “the space between the beauty and the pain.”
Still riding the momentum from this recent release and their acclaimed fourth album A Deeper Understanding, The War on Drugs have shared the video for “Nothing to Find,” starring young actress Sophia Lillis (of IT fame), who embarks on a road trip with some sort of plant man.
Directed by Ben Fee, the offbeat video “presents the bittersweet story of two friends on a not-so-classic road trip adventure,” per a press release, following Lillis’ character and Plant Man as they commit petty theft, commune with nature, shoot pool and have a dance party, until eventually Plant Man falls ill and returns to the earth. For all its sweetness, the video is awfully sobering: Whether plant or person, we all have our time, it reminds us—or as Adam Granduciel sings, “There is nothing I can do if I am going away.” But the video’s closing moments, which we won’t spoil for you here, offer a glimmer of hope for what we may find in the hereafter.
The War On Drugs have ready for release a new album tiltled “A Deeper Understanding” its due out on August 25th via Atlantic Records, their first for the label (previously they were on Secretly Canadian). Now the band has shared the album’s six-minute long glorious opening track, “Up All Night.” They have now shared five tracks from the album, which is half the album.
Previously The War on Drugs had shared the 11-minute long A Deeper Understandingcut (and Record Store Day single) “Thinking Of A Place” . Then they shared another song from the album, “Holding On” and then went onto perform the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Then the band shared two other songs from the album, the atmospheric slow-burner “Strangest Thing” and the expansive “Pain”. The band have also recently covered Warren Zevon’s ” Accidently Like A Martyr” recorded for a Spotify session.
The War on Drugs‘ main creative force Adam Granduciel worked on the album in studios in New York and Los Angeles, with help from engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer). Other members of the band (bassist Dave Hartley, keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and Jon Natchez) were also involved in the recordings from time to time and thus a press release calls A Deeper Understanding “a ‘band record’ in the noblest sense, featuring collaboration, coordination, and confidence at every turn.”
Official audio for The War On Drugs “Up All Night” ‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War On Drugs,
Adam Granduciel and his band The War On Drugs keeping upping the ante with each quality track they release in anticipation of their new album next month; most recently with the release of the latest single, “Strangest Thing.”The War On Drugs frontman appears to be in a thoughful mood with this track taken off of their newest album,”A Deeper Understanding,” scheduled for release via major label, Atlantic Records due August 25th.
Look out for the pride of Philly to hit the road come September for an extensive run of dates.
Three years after 2014’s standout album “Lost In The Dream”Philadelphia favorites The War On Drugs are looking for new terrain. Spinning classic riffs into a haze of classic radio rock, the band has long locked-in on a lush, guitar synth-drenched formula spanning their trio of past releases on the indie label Secretly Canadian Records. But then signed to a major label and unveiled a new single “Thinking Of A Place” the band seems set on something bigger this time.
The second track from their forthcoming album A Deeper Understanding, “Holding On” stretches the band’s meditative formula into a 6-minute track starts with a splash of stoned synths, quickly teasing in slide guitar and glockenspiel cut straight from Springsteen-esqe Born to Run or Tunnel of Love.
Adam Granduciel voice has the haunting low-end grovel, which slaps against the staccato bassline with a bright, up-beat bounce. As the chorus hits, the track ascends to a soaring, anthemic spiral with voice and guitar overlapping in a messy, monophonic ecstasy.
What once began as a bit of a simple “Springsteen plus reverb” punchline, the band has now expanded the palette into something transformative and newly striking. ‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War OnDrugs, available soon
Three years after 2014’s standout Lost in the Dream, Philadelphia favorites The War On Drugs are looking for new terrain. Spinning classic riffs into a melancholic haze of classic radio rock, the band has long locked-in on a lush, synth-drenched formula spanning their trio of past releases on the indie label Secretly Canadian. But after signing to a major and unveiling their dreamy and crystalline new single “Thinking of a Place,” the band seems set on something bigger this time.
The second track from their forthcoming album A Deeper Understanding, “Holding On” stretches the band’s meditative formula into crisp, streamlined hi-fi. The 6-minute track starts with a splash of stoned synths, quickly teasing in slide guitar and glockenspiel cut straight from Born to Run or Tunnel of Love. Adam Granduciel voice has the haunting low-end grovel, which slaps against the staccato bassline with a bright, up-beat bounce. As the chorus hits, the track ascends to a soaring, anthemic spiral with voice and guitar overlapping in a messy, monophonic ecstasy.
What once began as a bit of a simple “Springsteen plus reverb” punchline, the band has now expanded the palette into something transformative and newly striking. Years after 2011’s Slave Ambient betrayed its namesake with a liberating hypnogogia, “Holding On” lets go of the past with an elegy of mutating soundscapes. But as it slowly drops back into its last wisps of spectral echo, the track pangs with something familiar, the future taking shape through reflective introspection.
Our new album ‘A Deeper Understanding’ is officially arriving on August 25th, 2017. Listen to ‘Holding On’ now.
The Fat Angel Sings 