Music

Track Of The Week: "Red Eyes" by The War On Drugs

by Chris Budd

On constant repeat right now is “Red Eyes” off Lost In The Dream, the third album by Philadelphia band The War On Drugs (out March 18th on Secretly Canadian). I became a fan of the band back in 2011 when Slave Ambient hit the shelves and I wasn’t the only new fan to notice. The band spent the bulk of two years on the road, touring through progressively larger rock clubs, festival stages and late-night television slots.

In the past, the core of the songs where built by principal songwriter Adam Granduciel but now in Lost In The Dream, these new tunes were played and recorded by the group that had solidified so much on the road, spending eight months bouncing between a half-dozen different studios stretching from NC to NYC. The result was a careful and thrilling reinvention of the sound that’s become The War On Drugs‘ trademark; a “signature meld of long tones and scattershot layers with phantom drum machines and organ lines dotting the musical middle distance.”  Granduciel’s voice steps out from behind its typical web of effects-louder now, with more experiences to share and more steel from having survived them.

I can’t wait to spend time with the record. At least “Red Eyes” can hold me off until then.

The video features the band acting as judges for a talent contest, check it out below.