On October 29, 2021 "The War On Drug" released "I Don’t Live Here Anymore".
Four years after the amazing "A Deeper Understanding", Adam Granduciel & Co. brings us "I Don't Live Here Anymore", the fifth studio album of "The War On Drugs", the perfect album for a fall morning ...
In huge contrast to the album title, Adam Granduciel which is actually "The War On Drugs", definitely "lives here" and he is not going anywhere, on the contrary! He holds the burning torch of classical rock and makes sure it does not go out, all in the name of the younger generation.
Adam Granduciel, who actually does everything in the band (singer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist), continues to produce "boutique" albums, ones that are almost non-existent today. An amazing combination of classic rock, with a mix of folk, rock, indie, Americana, and psychedelia.
Listening to "The War On Drugs" new album will put you in Dr. Brown and Marty McFly's Delorean car and play with your timeline. On the one hand, the rhythm is quite uniform and monotonous, it sounds like one long song and will make you feel like time has stopped as if you are caught in an endless loop. On the other hand, it is simply magical and mesmerizing and you can not stop listening to it. It will bounce you back and forth on the timeline of the 70s, 80s of the last century and even into the current millennium and then back. It will replace the images in your head and you will feel like you are moving between cities, states and continents. It will change the sound when Granduciel's faded and rough voice is sometimes sound like Jacob Dylan and just like a chameleon will alternate between Peter Gabriel, Mark Knopfler, Rod Stewart, and Tom Petty. It will replace the record for you each time with a different artist. A little Bruce Springsteen with "I Don't Wanna Wait" and "Wasted", a little "Fleetwood Mac" with "Harmonia Dream", a little Peter Gabriel with "Victim" and trust us you will also hear "U2", "REM", Brian Adams, "The Waterboys", "Dire Straits" and more.
This album would have come out earlier, had it not been for two events that influenced its work. The band just finished the world tour to promote the album "A Deeper Understanding" from 2017, which also picked up the Grammy Award as the best rock album, and just then Covid-19 changed everything. The lockdowns pushed Granduciel to continue and create. He also just became a father during this period and the combination of these two events only reinforced the fact that the material in "I Don't Live Here Anymore" is even more "spiritual" than ever, full of reflections on change, emotion, and destiny.
There is no doubt that "I Don't Live Here Anymore" continues the line of its predecessors, both in music and sound. True, it may be a little more commercial-oriented, but the production is fuller and richer and Adam plays here on a wider range of instruments (guitar, bass, percussion, piano, Hammond, mellotron, vertebral avalanche, synthesizer, drum machine, and more), but "The War On Drugs "are not really trying to innovate or change. This is exactly what characterizes the music of Adam Granduciel and his friends. They just made a career out of trying to sound like so many great artists, but still somehow still manage to sound like anything else in music, and it's amazing and it's, great and it's beautiful !!!
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music