War on Drugs

xp - really? You've never had that feeling where you love an album but don't need to hear anything more from that band?

Without the gauzy atmospherics they'd basically just be Kurt Vile mk II and who wants that?

agreed - the gauze is the main draw, hence why Slave Ambient >> first lp

Like, other than Baby Missiles, I'm not sure "songwriting" is one of their main strengths at all.

The first and last song presents great song wriying as well

this album is so fucking rad

meaning the new one

New album is just brilliant. So warm and comforting, even though it's pretty miserable. As if Springsteen and the E Street Band had made an album with Mark Knopfler in between BITUSA and ToL, but all concerned happened to have been listening only to Neu at the time.

Can't wait to hear this. 'Slave Ambient' was a big record for me.

Interesting you mention Knopfler as Dylan's 'Series of Dreams' (which he plays on) sounds like the prerequisite for War on Drugs.

Yeah excited as well - so this is Slave Ambient II, I gather (not a bad thing)?

More like he realised Tiny Missiles was the best song on Slave Ambient and based the album around that … Lots of lazy Knopfler lead guitar lines all over it.

Oooh, that sounds great. Definitely ready for a new album by these guys

it is much more minimalistic than Baby Missiles.
it's good, though Slave Ambient had more hooks. this one seems a little unfocused maybe.

BTW, i see more Springsteen doing 80's Sophisti-pop than Dire STRaits

The single is fantastic, if it's all in that vein I am 100% down with this project.

it's not all rippers but the ones like "red eye" are all killer

I mean I really, really like Slave Ambient as well so I'm happy with some balance here.

i won't be surprised if they like Destroyer's Kaputt.

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.