I’m gonna start this off with a big call. This is the best album of 2014.

It’s been a while since I was this excited to place a little round disk in a tray and listen to it spin around, probably not since last year’s brilliant Phosphorescent album, or maybe Jason Isbell’s latest. Both of those were superb albums, and this one is also. It takes all of 8 seconds to realise what you’re in for with 'Lost in the Dream'. As the initial warbling drones of ‘Under the Pressure’ fade into layered synths and a drum beat kicks into action like it’d been lifted right out of the 80s, this is a record that is both compelling and insightful.

After the indie success of ‘Slave Ambient’ (2011), this was a much anticipated release. The band was evolving into an actual cohesive and creative unit, and not just the studio hands they started off as, working for frontman Adam Granduciel. At least that’s the story we hear in interviews anyway, because despite the merits of the other players, The War on Drugs is Granduciel’s vehicle – he is the singular maestro behind this band. I wouldn’t call this a happy album, exactly. A quick glance at some of the song titles gives that one away. Words like: pressure, suffering, disappearing, haunting, burning, lost… this is the vocabulary of an artist in pain.The word is that Granduciel went through a tough breakup in the making of ‘Lost in the Dream’, which you probably could have guessed, listening to it. What’s with these creatives anyway where they seem to have to sabotage their personal relationships for their art? Sacrificing their chances at happiness to appease the muse?

‘Under the Pressure’ sets the tone to come like all great openers. (That’s about where the typical track arrangement ends) It’s moody and misty, driven on with a pulsing drum beat, though moving at its own pace just the same. I love what Granduciel said about the ideal way to listen to this album being while driving alone at night. It’s a perfect image. This song speeds up and slows down. It waits at the lights, but it also drops the accelerator on the long, open stretches of road that open up before it. At just under nine minutes, Granduciel’s clearly picked up a few tips from his buddy Kurt Vile (who played on the War on Drugs’ 2008 debut album). The opening track to his outstanding 2013 album (Wakin on a Pretty Daze) is even longer, going against the standard quick-rocker-to-get-things-underway model. ‘Under the Pressure’ is long and rambling. It begins with synth-ey drones, and delves back into the atmospheric towards the end. It sounds like a film score in those moments. Someone needs to do a supercut with scenes from Drive to that song.

The standard quick rocker comes second, after you’re already emotionally invested. ‘Red Eyes’ is also the only video so far released. What a song, too. The Springsteen comparison has been made many times with this band. Never is it more apparent than in the glorious moment when he ‘woos’ just as The Boss would, ramping up the tempo at the exact moment the guitar solo kicks in. It’s triumphant.

Oh, but track three kicks you right down to your hands and knees. ‘Suffering’ strips back the driving synths, playing up the atmospheric gloom over a soul/blues rhythm. He’s owning his pain, sure. It still hurts though. Subtle piano tinkling rises into focus, followed by a watery guitar solo – as if playing through the tears, and maybe he was. A tear-jerker so early in an album run is strange, but it adds poignancy to the start of the next track, which is my favourite of the lot. ‘An Ocean in Between the Waves’ it’s called. “I bet against the company again/they try to redefine/redefine what I know as mine/I gotta know you’re mine”. He sure did bet against the company. He’s doing his own thing by his own muse and not taking in a word any nosey record execs may have to say. Kudos to you, Adam. You are a genius of sound and rhythm and this is the best song I’ve heard in a long time. Springsteen seeps through the whole thing, but Granduciel’s voice is a mix of Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. This is heartland rock the likes of which have never been heard. Driving through the night, guided by the beams of the headlight illuminating the road ahead. The centre lane markings passing one by one by one by one by one by one… Yet there’s none of the ‘getting back to basics’ in the music. The arrangements are sprawling and grandiose. It’s Bruce Springsteen meets David Lynch. Lost Highway meets Born in the USA.  

We then settle down into the slow, understated ‘Disappearing’ because, what the hell, we’ve got a full tank of gas and no place to be. So we just listen and reflect as the sounds of synthetic waves crash upon an electric shore. ‘Eyes to the Wind’ is us getting back in the fast lane. Another sterling song. “Have you fixed your eyes to the wind/will you let it pull you down again/on the way back in”. Let’s just drive wherever the road takes us. Follow the wind. Don’t look back. Again, such a good song!

‘The Haunting Idle’ is an instrumental track, another Lynchian exercise, and a chance to take a breath. That fades nicely into ‘Burning’, which carries a torch for hope and a new beginning. “So if you look you’ll find yourself/you’re not the demon in the dark”. That’s the road story for you isn’t it? You drive across an entire country just to find yourself. It’s the moment of epiphany we’ve been building too. Not a big climactic moment, just a lifelike realisation that things will get better.

Which is what breaks the ground for the title track ‘Lost in the Dream’, where our enlightened hero can now apply his wisdom to a captivated audience. He’s been lost in a dream – now he’s home, wherever that may be. “You may risk it all, you’d risk it all for the memory/but its living under your skin/love’s the key to the things that we see/ain’t no mind chasing/leave the light on in the yard for me”. Beautiful. Phosphorescent is the only other modern band I can think of capable of this kind of wisdom: Wistful and reminiscent, though not weighed down by memory. A shrug of the shoulders and tomorrow’s a new day. “And I don’t mind you disappearing/cos I know you can be found/maybe living on the dark side of town”. Is he talking to a person? A feeling? An idea? Who knows. This is the final track, ‘In Reverse’. The vocals are pushed to the front here more than anywhere else. It suggests clarity; perspective. Put the keys on the table and hang your coat on the rack. Maybe pour yourself a drink. You’re home.

The beauty of art is that we can, unlike the characters in the stories, always just press play and live it all again with the safety of detachment. We didn’t have to experience the pain like Granduciel. He did, but he emerges with closure and a fresh start. And a brilliant goddamn album.

1. Under The Pressure
2. Red Eyes
3. Suffering
4. An Ocean In Between The Waves
5. Disappearing
6. Eyes To The Wind
7. The Haunting Idle
8. Burning
9. Lost In The Dream
10. In Reverse