Friday, May 2, 2014

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian, 2014)

The War on Drugs
Lost in the Dream
Secretly Canadian
2014

Rating: 9 run down gas stations out of 10

As is often the case, the things I love the most are the ones I have the hardest time writing about, and that is definitely the case with this new War on Drugs record "Lost in the Dream."  This is possibly the earliest I've ever felt "record of the year" was decided, but it's really going to be surprising (and completely awesome) if anything as good as this record comes out the rest of the year. 

A big part of what makes reviewing this hard (or at least my type of sophomoric "sounds like" reviewing) is that the band doesn't neatly slot into any of the subgenres - this is just a rock record.  An honest, beautiful, straight-forward rock record.  Yeah, there are a lot of moments that sound like Tom Petty, the occasional Bruce Springsteen/heartland rock vibe, and the extended, almost-psychedelic guitar work, but at the end of the day it's just a really well crafted collection of songs that blend well together.  And the songs are often epic - many of them stretching into the six, seven, even eight minute range - but it never feels like it overstays it's welcome.  The total record is right around an hour, and by the time you hit the end you just want to start the whole thing right back over, which I've done multiple times now.     

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