The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream

The third album from Philadelphia-based The War On Drugs is not for the easily distracted or the faint-hearted. With eight of the 10 songs weighing in over the five-minute mark, neither is this a record for the casual listener.

At its best, Lost In The Dream comes across like an organic version of LCD Soundsystem jamming with Arcade Fire. At its worst, however, it’s like a collection of Dire Straits B-sides, with Bob Dylan replacing Mark Knopfler on lead vocal duties – while not as nasal as his Bobness, frontman Adam Granduciel does tend to emphasise the same syllables as Dylan.

On the plus side, the joyous ‘Red Eyes’ sparks with an inner fire that’s as insistent as their music gets, the bittersweet ‘Burning’ drives forward on strong Springsteen-esque sensibilities and the title-track is achingly beautiful.

The truly epic ‘Under The Pressure’ encapsulates both sides of The War On Drugs, however. It kicks in like a train, with a chugging, relentless guitar lick, intercut with gorgeous piano and Granduciel’s yearning vocal. This is Granduciel’s band at their epic, cinematic peak, and it’s where the earlier LCD comparison comes from. Unfortunately, after six minutes of greatness, it descends into ambient nonsense for the following three minutes, which is like getting the most amazing starter in the world, followed by a cremated hunk of grey meat for the main course.

On the down side, ‘The Haunting Idle’ is a cacophonic non-song, while rarely was a track so aptly named as ‘Suffering’, which is far too ponderous for its own good and loses both its way and its audience long before the final note fades. Even the winsome ‘Disappearing’ melts into the background after a while. ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ is more immediate, although there is a bang of Brothers In Arms-era Dire Straits to the twiddly guitar solos.

Long praised for the cinematic nature of his compositions, Adam Granduciel’s third album is like a road movie set to music. While this may sound great, be warned, however: some of those American highways are seriously long, without a lot in the way of scenery to hold your attention for the duration.