[rating=6.00]
More than once on his third album with the War on Drugs, Adam Granduciel sings about traveling in reverse and reckoning with the past. Both mirror his road-worn journey behind the making of Lost in the Dream; the group’s frontman visited six studios to experiment and produce this record after spending two years touring the band’s last one, 2011’s Slave Ambient.
It’s a toss-up as to which turned out better. They coexist in a synth-pop continuum when played back-to-back, but synth-pop is merely the underpinning of Lost in the Dream. It serves more as the conduit for Granduciel’s reverb-soaked pop songs, indebted to his many classic-rock idols. Here he suppresses his usual Dylan-like vocal tic in favor of Don Henley, and he sounds more polished thanks to those two years playing for bigger crowds. It is Robbie Bennett’s piano, however, that shines brightest; even his saddest notes elevate the moods of “Suffering” and “Under the Pressure.”
For Slave Ambient, Granduciel worked mostly alone. Lost in the Dream captures more of a live-sounding record, owed mostly to his bringing Bennett and bassist Dave Hartley into the War on Drugs’ latest battle. Think of it as an awakening—the morning after a restless touring binge.
