The War On Drugs present I Don’t Live Here Anymore, their first studio
album in four years.
Over the last 15 years, The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this
century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the
underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making
records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. The
War On Drugs have never done that as well as they do with their fifth studio
album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, an uncommon rock album about one of our
most common but daunting processes — resilience in the face of despair.
Just a month after The War On Drugs’ A Deeper Understanding received the
2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album, the core of bandleader Adam Granduciel,
bassist Dave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca retreated to
upstate New York to jam and cut new demos, working outside of the predetermined
roles each member plays in the live setting. These sessions proved highly
productive, turning out early versions of some of the most immediate songs on
I Don’t Live Here Anymore. It was the start of a dozen-plus session odyssey
that spanned three years and seven studios, including some of rock’s greatest
sonic workshops like Electric Lady in New York and Los Angeles’ Sound City.
Band leader Granduciel and trusted co-producer/engineer Shawn Everett spent
untold hours peeling back every piece of these songs and rebuilding them.