(Secretly Canadian/Longtime Listener)

Ambient Americana combo deliver cosmic country winner

Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs are a curiously unclassifiable band on their shimmering debut album Wagonwheel Blues. On the surface, rootsy anthems Arms Like Boulders and the 10-minute Show Me The Coast are Dylan-esque indie country-rock, but there is also the droning spirit of The Velvet Underground and the pioneers of psychedelia at the heart of the band’s music. Buenos Aires Beach, for instance, can be compared to the Velvets’ Waiting For My Man in its metronomic rhythmic insistence. They even find time for an Eno-esque ambient instrumental (Reverse The Charges), but essentially come into their own when they combine the organic familiarity of The Band and Dylan with echo-drenched guitars and spacey atmospherics. Hence, tracks like the dreamy Taking The Farm, pastoral-psych instrumental Coast Reprise and the aforementioned cavernous magnum opus Show Me The Coast are quite lovely – in fact, the whole record floats by like a refreshing afternoon breeze, while its gently unpredictable nature places the listener in a parallel world where Music From Big Pink, Here Come The Warm Jets and Ocean Rain somehow morph into one another.

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MATT THROWER

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