Description
The War On DrugsannounceI Dont Live Here Anymore, their first studio album in four years, outOctober 29th on Atlantic Records.Over the last 15 years, The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this centurys great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into aunified and engrossing present. The War On Drugs have never done that as well as they do with their fifth studio album,I Dont Live Here Anymore, an uncommon rock album about one of our most common but daunting processesresilience in the face of despair.
Just a month after The War On DrugsA Deeper Understandingreceived the 2018Grammy for Best Rock Album, the core of Granduciel, bassistDave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalistAnthony LaMarcaretreated to upstate New York to jam and cut new demos, working outside of the predetermined roles each member plays in the live setting. These sessions proved highly productive, turning out early versions of some of the most immediate songs onI Dont Live Here Anymore. It was the start of a dozen-plus session odyssey that spanned three years and seven studios, including some of rocks greatest sonic workshops likeElectric Ladyin New York and Los AngelesSound City. Band leaderAdam Granducieland trusted co-producer/engineerShawn Everettspent untold hours peeling back every piece of these songs and rebuilding them.
One of the most memorable sessions occurred in May 2019 atElectro-Vox, in which the bands entire line-up rounded out by keyboardistRobbie Bennett, drummerCharlie Hall, and saxophonistJon Natchez convened to record the affecting album opener Living Proof. Typically, Granduciel assembles The War On Drugs records from reams of overdubs, like a kind of rock n roll jigsaw puzzle. But for Living Proof, the track came together in real time, as the musicians drew on their chemistry as a live unit to summon some extemporaneous magic. The immediacy of the performance was appropriate for one of the most personal songs Granduciel has ever written.
The War On Drugs particular combination of intricacy and imagination animates the 10 songs ofI Dont Live Here Anymore, buttressing the feelings of Granduciels personal odyssey. Its an expression of rock n rolls power to translate our own experience into songs we can share and words that direct our gaze toward the possibility of what is to come.
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