On their fifth album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, the War on Drugs leans into the grandeur that they reined in on 2014’s Lost in the Dream and 2017’s A Deeper Understanding. The album displays the band’s fascination with ’80s rock, but where their last few releases blurred Springsteenian choruses under layers of psychedelic guitars and synthesizers, I Don’t Live Here Anymore places its vibrant hooks front and center.
“I Don’t Wanna Wait,” one of the album’s standout tracks, is a bona fide power ballad, with frontman Adam Granduciel’s voice rising from a pool of distortion to break into thrilling clarity atop unabashedly chintzy keyboards. No less dazzling is the title track, on which Granduciel is joined by members of the Brooklyn indie-pop band Lucius during the song’s refrain: “We’re all just walkin’ through the darkness on our own.”
On “Wasted,” a high-pitched synthesizer and dramatically strummed electric guitar punch up Granduciel’s reverb-heavy vocals. The War on Drugs has recorded plenty of long, ambitious songs perfectly suited for a lengthy road trip, but “Wasted,” which boasts a brisk, nimble beat, feels bolder and more exciting than anything the band has produced to date.
Similarly, the dense and lush “Harmonia’s Dream” feels like the pinnacle of everything that the War on Drugs does so well, piling on ever more guitars and organs and piercing synthesizers, while “Victim” slinks along on a low, tense bassline as Granduciel’s breathy voice gets lost in a haze of caustic guitar fuzz. The latter track’s myriad moving pieces, whirring and buzzing in gripping synchronicity, are especially impressive to behold.
“Living Proof,” by contrast, is stripped down to its barest essentials. Granduciel’s melodies are delivered as if he’s beginning a sentence that he has no intention of finishing, leading to an intermittent guitar solo that similarly trails off. Though the War on Drugs may take a slightly more straightforward approach on I Don’t Live Here Anymore than they have in the past, they still find new ways to engage with complex arrangements. The result is a nimble balancing act of accessible pop-rock anthems and experimental soundscapes.
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