The War on Drugs | photo by Dustin Condren | courtesy of the artist
Listen to The War on Drugs’ new slow-burner “Strangest Thing”
The War on Drugs new album A Deeper Understanding is quickly approaching — just about a month away to be (kind of) exact. But this doesn’t mean we can’t be spoiled to more sneak peeks before then. Joining the lineup of singles “Thinking of a Place” and “Holding On” is the recently shared track, “Strangest Thing.”
In this newest release, we’re treated to a whopping six minute and forty-one seconds of slow-burning anthemic rock. The first half of the track walks on in steady, even tempo consistency; fully dedicated to introspective lyrics as Granduciel questions, “Am I just living in the space between / the beauty and the pain?”
But as his words take a more impassioned turn, so too does the music. Searing guitars and soaring synth rip the track out from the complacent in-between Granduciel mulls over and sends “Strangest Thing” out in powerful determination. Though it is uncertain which way the scale will tip — to beauty or to pain — the song seems to point toward a bit of both.
Don’t miss The War on Drugs’ epic hometown show at The Dell Music Center for Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better benefit concert on September 21st; find more info on the show over at the XPN Concert Calendar.