Lost in the Dream by The War On Drugs was by far my favorite album of last year. It has an amazing atmosphere that I am always glad to find myself (excuse the expression) lost in. The production is reminiscent of the 1980s with the worst excesses toned down: airy synthesizers, reverby guitar, echoey piano, and metronomic drums. Singer and composer Andrew Granduciel's has a bit of raspy Bob Dylan in its grain, making "Under the Pressure" sound like a lost outtake from Oh Mercy.
"Under the Pressure" kicks off the album and sets the mood. Although this is hardly a barn burner, the tempo is fast and insistent, and Granduciel lets out a few "whoos." I find myself listening to it a lot in the morning, riding the train into New York City with the sun barely peaking over the horizon of the New Jersey swamps. It's such a beautiful song, a kind of morning prayer as I head off to work at the start of another day.
TS Eliot was wrong. April is by no means the cruelest month, February's got it beat by a country mile. Winter has been here for months, and now it is getting colder than ever at a time when my body is crying out for spring. Music is one my healthier means of surviving it, and when I listen to The War On Drugs, I feel a kind of spiritual warmth. Rarely have I found music this theraputic for this trying time of the year.
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