The War On Drugs – Wagonwheel Blues
February 12th, 2009 | Published in Reviews
The greatest strength of the folk-pop debut album Wagonwheel Blues from The War On Drugs, less a band than the brainchild of Adam Granducial, is its dense production. Piles of scratchy, lo-fi acoustic guitars are layered over low keyboard drones, bleary percussion, and atmospheric undertones courtesy of endless tracks of distant electric guitar leads and wurlitzer organ. This album feels like a more weather-beaten Wilco but doesn’t quite reach the cracking “broken speaker” sound of the more rocking songs by the Microphones. While Wagonwheel Blues reads like mere studio trickery on paper, these songs actually gain a distinctly organic and rustic quality from their studio tending.
While it’s pretty interesting to hear such a fresh take on a genre as played-out as alt-country, a closer listen ultimately reveals the weakness of the songs themselves. While openers “Arms Like Boulders” and “Taking the Farm” are top-notch pop romps, the latter making great use of spare electronic percussion, the rest of the album suffers from a plain old lack off ideas. With only nine songs, two of which are airy instrumentals, the remaining songs don’t pick up enough of the slack and usually go on too long. They’re all pleasant enough, and the near-shoegaze “A Needle In Your Eye #16” is downright energizing until its hits the four minute mark and you realize that the same two chords have been playing with literally no dynamic shifts the entire time. I would like to stress that there aren’t any “bad” songs on this album, only that the too few great melodic ideas get stretched too thin over the course of this album. While its replayability suffers in the end, Wagonwheel Blues still makes for a unique, enjoyable listen.
Grade: B-
Review by Michael Squeri
