The War On Drugs - 'Wagonwheel Blues' (Secretly Canadian) Released 02/06/08

Traditional yet free-thinking, The War On Drugs’ music could be lazily categorized with a list of everybody’s favourite classic rock acts. But that free-thinking element allows us all to open our eyes a little. ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ is anything but a tribute to Bruce Springsteen and that becomes more evident after each listen. Influences are hard to find when you’re not looking decades back – Arcade Fire-esque ‘Taking The Farm’ is the most driven and structured song on the record, lacking the spontaneous brilliance that appears as the album progresses. Band Of Horses are another contemporary possibility to include in their grateful inspirations list.

The reason why I’m referencing other bands names who you’re likely to have heard of? Because ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ lacks any originality from start to finish. But for some reason, defying the laws of good music, that doesn’t add a wound to any single song. Whatever Granduciel and co.’s intention was, it wasn’t to break any barriers. Though nor was it to take heed to their inspirations. ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ is best when you take notice of the minor details – how the instrumentals aren’t filler, how ‘Show Me The Coast’, spanning ten minutes, isn’t a complete mess of a song (unlike The Mae Shi’s recent inclusion of ‘Kingdom Come’ on their latest, which was just ****ing irritating).

Throughout, the multi-instrumentalist five-piece sound confident and they’re not clearly fearful to create any “new sounds” – they just don’t want to. Unlike most of today’s bands who deem it necessary to understand the word “progression” to be “sounding original”, The War On Drugs cram rock n’roll influences with a hint of arrogance, and it does the trick. Of course there are weaknesses – the lo-fi ‘Barrel Of Batteries’ is a needless, almost pretentious anti-climax of an album closer and at times, you do find yourself drifting off and simply using the record as background music for other tasks.

But rest assured, ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ sounds like the ideal foundation to build on, and build they shall. Avoid entering a listen with a cynical attitude, replace it with optimism, and you’ll reap the rewards. Particularly so when it comes to ‘Buenos Aires Beach’ which commences with simplicity but eventually moulds into an acoustic-led, all-in-it triumph. ‘A Needle In Your Eye #16’ is equally rewarding. Adam Granduciel leads the troops – it sounds quintessentially American, never-ending in spirit, unity and essentially, it begins to sound like an improved version of previously name-checked ‘Taking The Farm’.

And although most of the critique are going to name-check more original, ground-breaking acts as their “bands of the year” – The War On Drugs can remain certain that a few willing hearts will be won over by this clever little gem.