The War on Drugs
"Live Drugs"
(Super High Quality (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) 1/2)
Adam Granduciel is a perfectionist, a studio obsessive who builds up the War on Drugs' atmospheric music from painstakingly layered guitars and keyboards on songs that cast a hypnotic spell as they embark on journeys of discovery.
Acclaimed albums like 2014's "Lost in the Dream" and 2017's Grammy-winning "A Deeper Understanding" are the product of Granduciel's vision. But the Drugs are anything but a one-man band.
The other five members of the Philadelphia sextet, beginning with bass player Dave Hartley, all make key contributions to the Drugs' studio effort — and step to the fore on stage, where they've become more and more impressive as a live unit that has mastered reimagining, not simply re-creating, Granduciel's richly textured songs.
Before the pandemic, the band had been on track to release an album of new songs in 2020. (Last month, they performed one brand new one, "Ocean of Darkness," on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.)
Instead, they dug into the archives for "Live Drugs," which was culled from the band's 2017-18 tour. It's the first release on the band's Super High Quality label and is accompanied by a four-part "Super High Quality Podcast" that premieres Monday.
The set list reaches back to 2008's "Wagonwheel Blues" for the Dylanesque "Buenos Aires Beach," includes a sterling cover of Warren Zevon's "Accidentally Like a Martyr," and draws a concentration of songs from "Lost in the Dream."
Three from that album — "Eyes to the Wind," "Under the Pressure" and "In Reverse" — bring "Live Drugs" to a crescendo. Each track takes its time moving from contemplation to catharsis, slowly strengthening before locking into overdrive and lifting off like a jet engine, like only a great live band can do. — Dan DeLuca
