Music |
The War on Drugs: “A Deeper Understanding”
By
Published: Jan 15, 2019
Category:
Rock
If I have a late-life dream, it is this: to stand on a stage with those guys, playing the least important guitar.
I saw The War on Drugs at Terminal 5, where you can stand close to the stage but on the side, and because you’re not right in front you’re pretty much alone, and you can hear and see everything as if the band is playing just for you. I knew that Adam Granduciel, who is the mind and soul of this band, is an obsessive of the highest order; unsurprisingly, everything about this performance was flawless. The drummer played like a runner coming around the last turn: the precise rhythm of feet working against a very excited heartbeat. And the guitars! You could almost see shiny sheets of sound.
Lyrics? Hard to hear. Often obscure. The general idea is romantic difficulty of the interior kind:
I’ve been pulling on a wire, but it just won’t break
I’ve been turning up the dial, but I hear no sound
I resist what I cannot change
And I wanna find what can’t be found
And longing:
Pull me close and let me hold you in
Give me the deeper understanding of who I am
And, once in a while, actual connection:
The hole in my head
Emptied out into a love
Came pouring out into a life
Hold it up into the light
You’ll see it’s right here
Look, it’s glowing
A magic evening. And I’m not the only one who thinks the songs on “A Deeper Understanding” are as sublime as rock gets. The CD has sold a ton. It won a Grammy for Best Rock Album. For all its intensity, it delivers joy — the joy you recognize when someone has done something hard, and succeeded. You can even move to it. If you buy one CD this season in a category once called “rock,” this is it. [To buy the CD from Amazon and get a free MP3 download, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.]
The first song you should hear is “Pain.” [To buy the download from Amazon, click here.]
They don’t tour much. And they’re mostly played on alt-rock and college radio. So let Adam Granduciel tell the story.
NAME OF THE BAND: “My friend Julian and I came up with it a few years ago over a couple bottles of red wine and a few typewriters when we were living in Oakland. We were writing a lot back then, working on a dictionary, and it just came out and we were like ‘hey, good band name’ so eventually when I moved to Philadelphia and got a band together I used it. It was either that or The Rigatoni Danzas. I think we made the right choice. I always felt though that it was the kind of name I could record all sorts of different music under without any sort of predictability inherent in the name.”
A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING: “I was just thinking about getting older and accepting the past, accepting the decisions you make.”
On the other hand, “Up All Night” is pure affirmation, a man surrendering to the light of love. [To buy the download from Amazon, click here.]
THE LYRICS: “There are moments I’m not even sure what the lyrics are.”
THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM: “Music is a huge distraction for me. I used to have panic attacks. Then it manifested itself in anger. So you have to be on top of that. You think, ‘Oh, I’m fine. I’m not having panic attacks.’ But then you’re lashing out at everybody.”
MUSICIANSHIP: On one track, Granduciel, who wrote, produced and recorded the album, plays 10 ten instruments — and sings. He once re-recorded an entire album.
GUITARS: “People just want to find ways to express themselves. And music’s not going anywhere, and the guitar isn’t going anywhere, it’s just always evolving… the tradition of the guitar is still very much alive and well. And plus, nothing makes a better sound upon impact. If you throw a laptop against the wall, it’s not gonna make a cool sound, y’know?”
THE CRITICS:
Ryan Leas in Stereogum
“What’s poetic and enduring about their music is the way it travels through the past and today to deliver rock music that is surface-level enjoyable for the classicist-minded listener, but unveils foreign territory the more you sit with it.”
Jordan Sargent in Spin
“…. a single 38-year-old man interpreting the classic rock canon through a lens of blurred moroseness…. the music itself is so expansive and enveloping that it feels like it should be everywhere…. Granduciel’s songs are about sadness but never quite sad themselves. You get the sense that, even more so than with most artists, the creation of his music offers a therapeutic quality, a task into which time can be poured and something can be achieved.”
BONUS VIDEOS
HOLDING ON
UNDER THE PRESSURE
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