The War On Drugs "Lost In The Dream"

 

Well, I lost all my audio notes to a dumb phone getting older so I'm going to wing it the best I can.  My post on this band's previous album received quite a few views but I'm unsure what moved people to check it out.  It wasn't the most positive review but I did have some cool bands linked within.  I only kept one track but was intrigued enough to seek this new one out upon its release in late March.  I had no impetus to flash it past other records in the queue until I saw it top one critic's list for Best Albums Of 2014 (First Half).  So for the past month I've played this through several times.  In no way, shape or form is it one of the year's best but it certainly is a keeper as a whole with only a couple of quibbles. 

This is most certainly an American rock record.  Gone is the New Wave-ish bent of the previous one, replaced here by every studio effect on the console.  Quibble #1; there is scarcely an instrument or vocal that isn't treated in some form.  Heavy is the presence of the Tom Petty influence of the previous album and the Dylan manifestation would work if Bob had crystal meth in his youth.  I also noted places where this sounded like Springsteen on speed.  Absent was the U2 chiming, replaced by a Waterboys sensibility and a Mumford energy. 



That's the only official video I could find and it was pretty worthless as far as the visual goes.  That's not a quibble I had initially intended but let's add it anyway.  Quibble #3; half the songs are 6 minutes and longer (that's not my objection) but there's this "electric atmospherics" aspect to several songs that only adds minutes of droning waves of guitar mutations.  Jesus Christ....there are eleven engineers listed in the credits and you'd think at least one of them would have said, "OK, that's enough!" 



There we go.....that's more like it.  Rock song!  Tracks like this are what has helped it vault into the Top 30 of the 200 chart...

...but Best Of The Year consideration?  Not in my snobbish opinion but at least I kept it, which is  >50% of the records I've acquired so far in the past seven months.....