With I Don’t Live Here Anymore, a first studio album in four years and a fifth in total, The War on Drugs paces more than before the deserted roads of americana and rock of the 1980s.
While some still denied that the band to Adam Granduciel was in fact a tribute group to the giants of the genre – Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Neil Young, etc. -, these 10 new titles should close the case for good.
When it is not obvious in the riffs, harmonica complaints or heady percussions, it is squarely in the text: “Like when we went to see Bob Dylan, we danced to Desolation Row », Sings the Philadelphian on the effective title track, energized by the singers of Lucius.
In 2017, the epic A Deeper Understanding was awarded the Grammy for Rock Album of the Year. Its suite skimp more than ever on guitar solos, psychedelic outbursts or any appearance of improvisation. Here is a folk-rock studied, mastered, content. A sweet nostalgia and great wisdom emerge … which can also be taken for caution.
However, a few moments of grace emerge, whether caused by the melody or by the singing and writing of Granduciel. We think of the guitar-piano intro of Living proof, which submerges us in an unspeakable melancholy, to the paternal fragility of Rings Around My Father’s Eyes or the luminous crescendo ofOld skin.
Folk-rock
I Don’t Live Here Anymore
The War on Drugs
Atlantic records