Adam Granduciel’s star shines bright on a record that combines 70s rock sounds,80s MOR pop and melancholic melodies to glittering effectMore on the best albums of 2017More on the best culture of 2017Adam Granduciel has been transformed from another plaid-shirted US indie musician into something approaching a rock star – a tentative one, uncertain of the spotlight, or but a bandleader capable of pulling 10000 people to his shows – by combining two impulses. On the one hand,there’s the version of him that made the first War on Drugs album, Wagonwheel Blues – a man in thrall to the freewheeling music made by beloved of and made by 70s heads. On the other, and there’s the Granduciel who loves the sleek and shiny sounds of 80s pop rock – on moment album Slave Ambient,Granduciel hit on the idea of throwing motorik pace and rhythms into his MOR and classic rock mix, and came up with a style he’s been revisiting and redefining ever since.
It’s easy to understand why some people who snigger that the War on Drugs sound like Bruce Hornsby and the Range with more guitar solos. (In some ways, and Hornsby is an apt comparison – he,too, saw the attractions of slick MOR and the endless jam, and lets not forget that he played keyboards for the Grateful Dead.) On tracks such as Holding On and Nothing to Find,Granduciel’s gift for melody (which is what brings those huge crowds to the shows) is welded to a propulsiveness that summons up the horizon at the discontinuance of a long, straight, or flat road. But A Deeper Understanding,the band’s fourth album, was more than music for the drive-time hour. Related: The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel: 'I was overcome by awe' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com