Live Drugs Again (2024)

"This new, seven-piece configuration of the War on Drugs plays with remarkable patience. There’s a newfound—or at least newly emphasized—attention to the interlocking rhythms that bolster the songs’ swooning Heartland core. Granduciel’s solos aren’t as jammy as in the past, trading the minutes-long shred sessions for a more measured take on hypnotic maximalism. The band assembles “Living Proof” brick by brick, starting with sixteenth-note guitar strums, then adding eighth-note hi-hats, syncopated bass drums, and that hooky keyboard line that hovers in a fog of reverb. It’s almost techno-like in construction, meticulously building tension and ending in a quietly cathartic payoff when the groove downshifts into its roots-rock coda." (Pitchfork)