The War on Drugs return with intimate epic Thinking of a Place

The last War on Drugs album, 2014s Lost in a Dream, was the best reviewed album of that year. Its towering soundscapes created through masterful production, and smooth instrumentation, combined with the lyrics and vocals from Adam Granduciel, culminated with an album that has cast a long shadow over both indie and pop music. In the three years since the album’s release, producers have been bending over backwards trying to recreate that fuzzy, nostalgia tinged landscape and missing the mark most of the time.

That's because Adam Granduciel is master of that landscape, the only one who can plum its depths and make it sing, made all too clear with his new single "Thinking of a Place". At 11 minutes long, it may come across as a daunting task to invest time in what’s supposed to be an album teaser, but this is The War on Drugs, and they can make 11 minutes seem like 3, and have listeners complain that it wasn't long enough.

Which is exactly how I felt about "Thinking of a Place", a song of such ethereal beauty that I did get a little lost. That may have been Adam Granduciel's goal as his fills his song with mists, whispers, moonlight, and a runaway woman. There's nothing to grab hold of so it’s better to be pulled along by the percussive piano, the graceful guitar, and the unfussy synths. This is Granduciel's mindscape in which we are welcome visitors.