The War on Drugs’ “Strangest Thing” Is a Wistful, Excellent Summer Jam
A Deeper Understanding, the fourth album from Philly’s beloved War on Drugs, arrives August 25. The timing is perfect. This is when summer begins its slow dissolve. You’ve still got a solid month of beach weather left, but you’re already preoccupied with everything you have or haven’t managed to do in the days that are already used up. You convince yourself that you’re actually going to miss the humidity and grit of the season, and the air takes on a glow that’s all the more appealing for the knowledge that it will expire soon. This kind of nostalgia for the present is the War on Drugs’ specialty, and on the second Deeper Understanding single “Strangest Thing,” they’re serving it up in fine form.
The band has spent almost a decade refining its formula, and from the sound of the two singles we’ve heard, the new album makes no attempt at a total overhaul. Tunnel of…