The War On Drugs "Lost In The Dream" - Retrospective Review

9/10

Heartland rock, the nearly dead genre that Lost in the Dream, gets compared to for one reason or another. For starters, that blue-collar, God-fearing, sucking on a chili dog outside the tasty freeze culture has much less, if any relevance in the American musical lexicon twelve years ago when the record dropped, let alone today. From listening to this album, over and over again, and reading all the write-ups over the last decade give or take, that John Mellencamp style did not really seem to be Adam Granduciel’s vision with Lost in the Dream. Is there the Mellencamp sound within this sixty minute musical composition? Not really, can you hear any Bruce? Kind of, Tom Petty? Not really, Steve Earle? No… All that said, I’m not really buying the whole 80s-esque heartland rock thing. Comparing War on Drugs on to John Mellencamp frankly, is a bit of a ding to Adam Granduciel… John’s got some timeless songs, but he’s not the melodic composer that Adam is, and he certainly doesn’t have the same guitar chops that’s for sure, not a lot of people do….

Alas, this isn’t a hit-piece on the cultural and musical icon of John Mellencamp, but rather a reflection on Lost in the Dream, some twelve years or so after it was released, and the musical genre-bending conundrum that it still finds itself in. Although terms like indie rock, and alternative rock capture such a broad musical spectrum (with alternative rock capturing all of indie rock), Lost in the Dream is one of the most musically interesting, beautiful, and emotional alternative records to be released in the 2010’s. The Americana influence is ever-present, perhaps that’s where the heartland rock confusion comes from, but even the Americana influences were a bit limited in scope. Instead, the record captures the somberness and longing of aging, while still trying to find your place in the world, heard in songs like Suffering. The Americana sound cuts through real nice on the album tilted track, with Adam’s melodic harmonica playing. Make no mistake though, even with the songs more upbeat nature (at least compared to Suffering), somberness, and longing is just as much of a theme.

Now Red Eyes though, what a song that is. Twelve years later and that song still gives me chills. Such interesting rhythm in Adam’s lyrical delivery in the verses, but especially the choruses, “Don’t wanna let dark night cover my soul.” Red Eyes certainly left the biggest splash of any song on this record, ultimately becoming the band's most successful song. Beautiful interplay between the guitar and the keyboards on the chord changes. Paired with a nice guitar riff, following the chord changes, it's the epitome of successfully creating a song centered around a riff.

Lost in the Dream, even touches on the ambient genre, with The Haunting Idle. Although ambient/atmospheric isn’t really my cup of tea, it’s still pretty. When a mood-setting, atmospheric song is dropped in the middle of an album, I can dig it, especially when it leads into one of the more upbeat tracks, like Burning. 

Adam simply nailed it on this record, his next record comes pretty close as well, but this timeless album is him at his best… Just one of those records that the critics couldn’t really get enough of, and still rekindle praise again and again, over a decade later. Pristine yet polished, emotional but not over-the-top, simplistic yet immensely complex.