The War on Drugs
A Deeper Understanding

The War on Drugs are back to assert themselves in the American Indie scene with their "A Deeper Understanding" released on August 25th. Three years after their last work "Lost in The Dream", Adam Granduciel's band hints at a new awareness from the title itself, confirming a maturity that already seemed widely achieved in 2014. And yet, the Philadelphia formation is living proof that one never stops growing and learning.

The mood of their music production remains the same: the first time you listen to their album, you get the impression of being in front of something already heard, and even the tracks themselves seem similar to each other. However, by the second listen, the essence of each track begins to take shape. What The War on Drugs compose is not just music, but a state of mind. It is pure emotion.

Usually, Granduciel and his companions are recognizable from the first notes of each piece, and the opening track "Up All Night", although unusual for their style, is proof of this. These are The War on Drugs: always themselves, but always different. Even "Thinking of a Place", the first single from this album, is no exception: familiar, yet touchingly fresh.

"Pull me closer

Let me hold your hand

Give me the deeper understanding of who I am"

In "A Deeper Understanding", you can find the emotions of each of us: our insecurities, our fears, our anxieties. But there is also the courage to look at them with the right mindset, and to understand that melancholy is a constant in our lives, relentlessly moving forward. Therefore, one must take the beauty of what it gives us. And what beautiful things does life give us? Love. It might sound sappy and cliché, but for the Philadelphia formation, this definition does not exist. All emotions converge in what seems to be the leitmotif of this work: the need to be loved and to love.

The notes of this album are imbued with understanding and awareness: long and sometimes poignant guitar solos take the mind on a journey far from worries and fears, without letting them be forgotten. Granduciel’s voice blends with the ethereal atmospheres created by the synth, while the drums set the rhythm beat by beat, with modes already present in "Lost in the Dream", but also in even earlier works.

This is the essence of The War on Drugs: to remain the same, yet at the same time change, to add something. To enrich one’s personality without corrupting it.

This album is certainly one of the most interesting releases in recent years, especially for a country like ours, where independent productions increasingly tend to conform with the mainstream market. "A Deeper Understanding" is an additional answer to all those who believe that rock has been dead for decades. It is food for the soul: that of people, and that of music. And if music, real music, is made of emotions, then The War on Drugs are real music.