3/5
Well, there was this movie I seen one time, about a man riding ’cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck. He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself. The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck.
- Bob Dylan, Brownsville Girl
I’m fairly shocked to find that I’m actually reviewing something ‘contemporary’ rather than Bob Dylan’s mid-80s disaster of a record, “Knocked Out Loaded” . Then again, ‘contemporary’ is all relative these days as we shall soon see.
The War on Drugs (aka Adam Granduciel + assorted studio noodle buddies) pulls off a pretty good trick with their most recent album, ‘Lost in the Dream’: they manage to sound incredibly derivative of music that I don’t really rate (most 80s Dylan, Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) yet somehow transcend the thematic elements inherent in those sounds to produce something that I actually like. On the one hand, the songs on the ‘Lost in the Dream’ sound as though they are a collection of mid-80s cast-offs: “Dancing in the Dark” era synths turn and bubble below the surface, drum beats are slightly mechanical 4/4 back beats, the songs are all about freedom in the face of the death of the ‘American Dream’. On the other hand, the work is fairly dense lyrically and The War on Drugs manage to somehow breathe life into each of these elements.The decision to not fully revive awful, over-compressed 80s guitar tones was a wise one. Instead, we get a sea of super shimmery-tremolo guitar. Tremolo! Take that American Dream!
I know, I just spent the bulk of the last paragraph talking about the debt the War on Drugs owes to its influences, but I’m not done yet. Part of what makes the work effective is this cultural referencing and sense of continuity with the past, particularly as much of the music referenced was wholly invested in excising the Americana graveyard - a topic perhaps even more pertinent now as income inequality, etc. have only deepened and the plight of the Rust Belt has only become more dire. The War on Drugs directly borrows Dylan’s 80s growl and lyrical over-embellishment, Springsteen’s guttural (though curiously muted) primal yelps, Mark Knopfler’s guitar fills, and Tom Petty’s 4-on-the-floor, uh, boogie or something.
(Side note: The War on Drugs should cover Dylan’s “Brownsville Girl” – that song is ripe for critical re-appraisal. Also, Granduciel works well as the metaphorical hungry kid in the song.)
So, in a way, The War On Drugs are sort of a meta-commentary on a particular type of 80s adult contemporary music, a music who’s pathos and great subjects remain pertinent/resonate with young Americans who are increasingly feeling as though society as a whole is actively seeking to divest itself of them. It is the soundtrack to the decline of America, and just as the the destructive legacy of Emperor Reagan will never have truly left us, these sounds that predominated during his reign perhaps never will either. The War on Drugs, with their lyrical conceits that are simultaneously literate and nebulous tap into these mythos to make music that sounds simultaneously timeless and dated.
The opener “Under the Pressure” does a good job of defining how the record as a whole sounds, shimmering guitars, gentle-synth, bright piano that doesn’t do a lot other than create texture and elusive Dylan-inflected vocals. The song is catchy enough and segues nicely into the driving single “Red Eyes”. A lot of people have compared this album to The Arcade Fire, who similarly try to borrow from Springsteen’s epic, 80s bombast. To my mind, this is a lot more self-conscious and a lot more successful in its borrowing. The Arcade Fire invested too much energy in trying to ironically sex-up material and aesthetics that are, by their very nature, not particularly sexy anymore in order to create an overly ironic post-punk meets Springsteen stew that. To me, this has never been entirely convincing. The War on Drugs meanwhile play their indebtedness to the same source material a lot more up front, and to these tired ears at least, achieve the effect a bit better, exemplified by “Red Eyes”.
Another stand-out is “An Ocean Between the Waves”, which is the most Knopfler-esque song on the record, featuring some pretty solid guitar work without the track overstaying its welcome. Deep pathos crash against “Sultans of Swing” riffage. I’m also very fond of the title track, which is lyrically dense and dredges-up the sense of fin de siècle despair that defines the album. The harmonica (and the way Granduciel sings “the soldier man”) reminds you that Dylan is still the primary reference/ aspiration.
Songs I don’t like: “Suffering” works well in the context of sequencing the record, but isn’t particularly interesting on its own and the stretch of songs that links “Disappearing” (which isn’t bad despite its irritating 80s drum beat) and “Lost in the Dream” never quite shake the feel of being filler.
The record then is actually well summed-up by the lyrical conceits of the song “Brownsville Girl”: ‘Lost in the Dream’ is almost as if someone with a little more taste than whoever coaxed “Knocked Out Loaded”, “Empire Burlesque”, “Shot Of Love” and “Infidels” (which, surprise: featured, Mark Knopfler) out of an obliterated drunk and (*shudders*) Born-Again, Bob Dylan, had somehow forced Bob to really focus and pull together a single set of decent songs, which would then shine incandescent and speak timeless (and timely) truths (or something) despite their mid-80s production trappings.
In an era where almost all new music is highly derivative, The War On Drugs’ ‘Lost in the Dream’ manages to transcend its innate musical derivativeness by fully embracing derivativeness – sounding like a lost 80s Dylan meets Dire Straits classic that never was because Dylan was too drunk on rum and Christianity to make a decent all-around album at any point between 1978s ‘Street Legal” and 1989s “Oh Mercy”. While this is something of a service, it probably would have been more meaningful had it come out in say, 1983 or so. That said, it also makes me worry for the fate of contemporary popular indie-rock music. If we are now plumbing the lows of 80s-Dylan records for inspiration (indie-spiration?), what dearth of influences will be left unturned in a couple of years for popular indie-rock acts to rehash? Wham? Genesis? Phil Collins? Hair metal already seems to be making a minor comeback in the popular consciousness, which should be cause for concern to us all.
Or maybe they will be driven to try the most desperate, degenerate thing of all: people will have to put down their cell phones and rather than ironically reference their parents LP collection, try something completely new. Or just more of whatever Drake is doing.
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