The War on Drugs w/James Elkington

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What does indie-rock even mean anymore? Over the years the genre’s umbrella has widened to include not just noisy guitar acts and punk-leaning underground bands, but folk songwriters, chamber-pop ensembles, electronic producers and everything in between. But more so than most acts, Philadelphia’s War on Drugs tests the boundaries of the term. The band’s breakthrough 2014 album, Lost in the Dream, and its similarly lauded 2017 sequel, A Deeper Understanding, play like oddball period pieces, drawing deeply from the expensive, commercial production of ’80s releases from Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and other crossover boomer icons. In other words, they’re created from the very sounds that indie-rock once positioned itself against. Coming from a lesser songwriter, this throwback production could easily play like a shtick, but The War on Drugs principal Adam Grandueciel uses them in service of unforgettable mood pieces.