The War On Drugs

To confirm a thought I had, I looked at my most played songs in iTunes. On the list is Father John Misty because I'm a fan boy, Girl Talk because there's always a time for Girl Talk and The War On Drugs.  I just knew TWOD would be up there. 

But what is it about The War On Drugs that makes me love them so much?

I always seem to ask myself this when I'm listening to their albums, which has proven to be pretty much all of the time. What is it that makes me never get tired of their tunes? Why do I always want to turn on their shit?

The only answer I can muster is very general and a little too hippy dippy (especially for SYFFAL): when I listen to TWOD time seems suspended - they allow me to live in the moment. 

Ahhhh fuck, I hate that I just wrote that over cliched thought. "Live in the fucking moment"?, who am I? A yoga instructor who follows around The Dave Matthews Band? 

But unlike, for instance, Dave Matthews who unsubtly writes lyrics about 'carpe diem' in what seemed like every song - treating it like it's some kind of original thought, TWOD makes you feel it.

And you either feel it or you don't. If you do, I hope your nodding your head in agreement while reading this review and doing the whole eyes to eyes thing with your two fingers. If you don't feel it then you don't feel it and you won't feel it. And that's okay, but I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. So you can harp on the 'beer commercial guitar licks' or generally meaningless lyrics and those criticisms will fly over my head.

Because to be honest, after all those listens I can't tell you what one TWOD song is about lyrically. I'm not even sure if any song they have ever written has an underlying metaphorical meaning. As long as those hazy beer commercial guitar licks, sensh synth, and steady drum trotting make me feel like I'm traveling down  a highway in the middle of nowhere contently watching the landscapes pass by, I could give two fucks. 

I don't want TWOD to change. I don't need them to 'evolve'. I want them to create a discography that when listening from beginning to end sounds like the same never-ending album - one that makes me want to, in the immortal words of Dave Matthews, "sit on top of the world with my legs hanging free." This is why I'm giving A Deeper Understanding 10 stars, because it's a perfect continuation of their last amazing album: Lost In A Dream.  If that's not a good enough reason then you can blow me.