War on Drugs

i discovered the war on drugs because they opened up for destroyer on the kaputt tour, thought they sounded like a rad space rock tom petty or something

the sequencing on this album reminds me of their live show in that they got the bangers out of the way at the beginning and then just let the jam ride for the rest

"rad space rock tom petty " is exactly how I describe this band to people

I'm only five tracks in but this fucking rules.

Also Dire Straits are just about the only thing left from the 80s to be properly revived but they're all over this record.

Eyes To The Wind is amazing, how many instrumental lines are there weaving in and out of one another by the end?

One of the things I love about the record is that it's packed full of hooks, but very very few of them are chorus/vocal hooks – they're almost all guitar lines that are used incredibly judiciously for maximum impact.

Must write up my Granduciel interview …

This is all up on yo***be now ...

Been listening all morning, really enjoying it. the 4 min ambient outro to the first track kills the pace a bit though.

almost all of the songs have this problem on this record, but i can live with that

is this streaming anywhere yet?

it's on grooveshark. was listening to it yesterday.

thx!

yrwlcm!

Hearing a bit of early Spitiualized in the ambient sections

listening to the album stream on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0PxpilZvjc

this is great. it's a cross between tom petty solo, dire straights, and 80s-era springsteen. if you had asked me, before listening to this, if i wanted a "nu" version of any of those acts, i'd have said "no." but i love this.

opening of burning sounds just like rod stewart's young turks

going in for my third listen today, but i think i'll probably start on the second half. i think the lengthy spaced out jams on the first side are awesome but they kind of make me burned out by the time i hit the other side.

best thing i've heard this year.

After having spent a week with this, I am inclined to agree.

yeah. though i wish they used a real drummer instead of the monotonic drum machine

yeah, i picked up on that, too. wonder why they chose a machine (when it clearly makes a difference).

the sax on the haunting idle is just great. and the intro reminds me of some police song whose title i can't call to mind.

(sorry; maybe the sax is on eyes to the wind; i'm not really focusing on individual songs right now)

That kind of mechanistic stiffness is essential to the sound I think, it keeps everything else tightly reined in.

Wow, I love this. The first album in a while where I couldn't wait for it to end so that I could immediately listen to it again. I mean:

dire straights, and 80s-era springsteen. if you had asked me, before listening to this, if i wanted a "nu" version of any of those acts, i'd have said "no." but i love this.

Double/triple OTM.

I'm liking it too though I'm currently inclined to say Slave Ambient was better - I feel like there was a bit more variation on that album. I think someone said it above but the new one is basically "Baby Missiles" many times over.

the new one is basically "Baby Missiles" many times over

People keep saying this but it's not actually true, unless you're just not listening to Under The Pressure, or Suffering, or Eyes To The Wind, or the title track, or...

the impeccably smooth production is reminding me of (whisper it) Kaputt a little bit.

This really gets my blood running. Never really figured out slave ambient (probably didn't play it enough), but this feels way more fleshed out to me.

In addition to those already mentioned, the record makes me think of "Starfish"-era Church, and 80s Dylan, the latter especially with regard to vocal phrasings and the Knopfler collabs.

(whisper it) Series of Dreams is the best Dylan-song!

Ha, I think someone said that on a thread I read the other day, but I can't remember if it was a recent or old thread. Was is you?

the euphoric glide of "under the pressure" reminds me of "more than this" a little bit. i wasnt into "slave ambient" but this album is very very lovely indeed.

x-post: lol, nope, don't think so, but I'd like to know who it was.

Yeah I can definitely here some Roxy in there (xp). I thought Slave Ambient was pretty good but this album is so great.

Mule/Frederik - I think it was me who mentioned 'Series of Dreams' up thread. I've brought it up before when discussing War on Drugs because, for me, it's remarkably prescient of their sound.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the new one yet. It's sitting on a parcel on my desk baiting me right now (along with a replacement copy of 'Wagonwheel Blues', I had to return the first one cause it sounded like shit. Typical Strictly Canadian unfortunately).

just listening to "series of dreams" now for the first time. yeah good call!

Xpost. So it was actually this thread? Lazy of me. Thanks, IA.

Anyways, the song really is a blueprint of the WoD's sound, especially on the new album. This is a good thing.

Man, am I the only one who thinks Suffering completely kills the flow of the album? So boring and SO LONG.

That's hilarious, because listening to it this morning that's where the album really starts to click for me. It reminds me of the pretty noodling side of Dire Straits, like "Skateaway" or the pretty coda of "Tunnel of Love."

I mean, as if it wasn't obvious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQBKUPwG_Gk

Or here, starting at the 5 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQ0ns-hXf4

this is very nice but it makes me feel weird, like i always felt like that particular 80s rock sound of disappointment with life was for something that only happened to middle-aged 80s dudes, when it's coming from a whatever-aged 2010s dude i don't know what the feeling is anymore, time is out of joint

overall i think the vibe is wistful but positive, i dunno. granted i'm at work and am not really focusing on the lyrics much. or at all

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-war-on-drugs-gets-ready-to-play-the-big-rooms/

“I started going off the rails a little bit in my own head, getting a little too sucked in,” he said. “I learned a lot about anxiety and depression and how you probably have it your whole life, but you never really know it. Then eventually it starts to make your life smaller and smaller and smaller.”

Granduciel’s anxiousness created a vicious circle during the making of Lost in the Dream. Overthinking every detail caused him to constantly second-guess himself, which only increased his anxiety, which only made him second-guess himself more intensely. Just as with “An Ocean in Between the Waves,” a lot of songs cycled through several variations before circling back to one of Granduciel’s initial ideas. “‘Suffering’ went through four or five different incarnations, and then I ended up just going back to the original demo I recorded, which was a drum machine and a Rhodes piano, and we ended up building on top of that,” he said.

xpost In 1985, Springsteen was a whopping 35 years old. Dunno how old Adam Granduciel is, but Dan Bejar (for point of reference) is 41. Springsteen wasn't even 40 when he did his middle aged marriage falling apart "Tunnel of Love."

Ha, OK, I think Granduciel is 34, which puts him at Bruce c. "Born in the USA" age.

this is very nice but it makes me feel weird, like i always felt like that particular 80s rock sound of disappointment with life was for something that only happened to middle-aged 80s dudes, when it's coming from a whatever-aged 2010s dude i don't know what the feeling is anymore, time is out of joint

― j., Tuesday, March 18, 2014

the war on drugs: making america safe for middle-aged 80s dudes

like me!

If this was *just* a record that sounded like middle-aged 80s dudes it wouldn't be as interesting. The whole motorik/Spiritualized/spacerock element of their sound is crucial as well.

(In other words, it sounds like middle aged 90s dudes as well)

there's this pizza place i used to order from in college, that i would rarely actually go to, but it was always an odd experience in the 90s because the place was still decked out in like

http://image0-rubylane.s3.amazonaws.com/shops/752391/74.1L.jpg

and 80s stones album covers and an ambered jukebox, so since i was only a kid in the 80s (listening to michael jackson and men without hats or whatever alongside don henley on pop radio) most of my experience of the 'adult' perspective on 80s culture always has that kind of hangover aspect to it, like from its lingering on in places that had made their arrangements with life a while back and didn't have the need or luxury any more of styling new ways to be

i'm glad 2014 has found its random access memories.

i guess...i am mostly ok with this album's reference points (though i didnt give a crap about dire straits or bruce in the 80s, why should i now?) and execution, but i feel really out of step with the hype.

i found the roxy comment upthread interesting, i wanna relisten with that in mind.