The War On Drugs

Lost In The Dream (Secretly Canadian)
15/20

Upon receipt of this record, this reviewer listened to the first two tracks approximately 10 times without moving further into the album, mainly due to the fear it couldn’t match the dizzying heights scaled by them. As albums openers go, Under Pressure and now solid 6Music mainstay and first single Red Eyes revel in the kind of swagger, euphoria and pomp that will leave fans of the band’s first two albums drooling.

When the low-pitched, brass aided, rhythm guitar line beefs up the whole of the former before the whole thing meanders into wonderful American summer haze, you’re fucking lost. Similarly, the metronomic drumming and sheer addictiveness of the guitar lick on the latter could continue for roughly half an hour and still have you dancing like your parents in 1978. The fact is the Americana stylings of Philadelphia’s favourite retro sons predictably doesn’t reach the zenith of those first two tracks over the full distance of Lost In The Dream. An Ocean Between The Waves falls on the wrong side of recycled classic American bar rock and Eyes To The Wind fully belongs in the dusty corner of your parents’ ballad collection. But on the whole, the positivity and the wonder present on this record conjures the roads, the dreams and the magic of this modern take on a classic American sound.

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Words: Thomas Frost