How often do you experience that a band can develop in the lee for years and keep getting bigger and bigger? What used to be very normal - think of , or - is now quite exceptional. But: it still happens. After and , The War On Drugs has now reached the point where their new, fourth album is a Major Release - their first on the well-known label besides. For fans of the first hour, always swallow;
Will 'their' band file even more sharp edges, to be finally swallowed up by the mainstream, or will it stubbornly continue its own course? Judging by A Deeper Understanding, band leader Adam Granduciel was a bit in two minds. In exciting highway numbers like Up All Night and In Chains, the beacons are indeed changed. But in the calmer songs, War On Drugs' mix of , and a pinch of krautrock sounds a bit too coquettish. An exception is the beautiful Clean Living. That would have been the appropriate ending of this especially solid album, which will continue the success. (RME)more
