''A Deeper Understanding'' is the fourth studio album by American
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
band The War on Drugs. It was released on August 25, 2017 through
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
60th Annual Grammy Awards
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongch ...
.
Reception
''A Deeper Understanding'' received acclaim from music critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 33 reviews, indicating universal acclaim. According to Marcy Donelson of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, ''A Deeper Understanding'' "reclaims and explores the distinctive soundscapes, vastness, and haunted psyche of '' Lost in the Dream'', and that in itself is significant." On the same site, in a readers' poll by users it was ranked as the #1 album of 2017. Mark Richardson of ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials.
The term is also applie ...
'' noted similarities with mid-'80s rock, stating it is "also a fascinating study in influence; it’s hard to think of a band with more obvious touchstones that also sounds so original." Michael Bonner of ''
Uncut Magazine
''Uncut'' is a monthly magazine based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections. A DVD magazine under the ''Uncut'' brand was published quarterly from 2005 to 2006 ...
'' described it as "some of the richest, most compelling and least lonely-sounding music of Granduciel’s career".
In a less enthusiastic review for ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
'', Josh Goller noted "the album's lyrics, however, can’t match this same level of musical precision, and Granduciel too often repeats the same vague sentiments using threadbare imagery." The album's title was influenced by
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...
60th Annual Grammy Awards
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongch ...
, ''A Deeper Understanding'' won the
Grammy Award for Best Rock Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...
.
Accolades
Track listing
All words by Adam Granduciel. All music by Granduciel, except where noted.
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
Hammond Organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
,
Rhodes
Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...
LinnDrum
The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold.
Development
The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...
electric guitars
Electric Guitars were an English band formed early in 1980 by Neil Davenport (vocals, lyrics) and Richard Hall (bass, vocals) who were both studying English at Bristol University. The band soon increased to a five-man line-up, with Andy Sander ...
,
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...
,
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...
acoustic guitars
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
, lead electric guitars , vibes , celeste , Juno 106 ,
synthesizers
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
,
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
,
Korg Trident
The Korg Trident is a polyphonic multi-section synthesizer released by Korg in 1980, combining three distinct synthesizers within a single instrument: a polyphonic section with two VCOs, alongside dedicated String and Brass sections. The polyphonic ...
,
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...
Roland Juno-60
The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally contro ...
,
organ
Organ and organs may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function
* Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body.
Musical instruments
...
,
tape loops
In music, tape loops are loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder. Originating in the 1940s with the work of Pierre Schaeffer, they were used among con ...
, Vox Organ
* Charlie Hall – drums , percussion , backing vocals , electric guitar , vibes
* Dave Hartley – bass guitar ,
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
, acoustic guitar , backing vocals ,
fretless bass
A fretless bass is an electric bass guitar whose neck lacks frets and thus is smooth like traditional string instruments, and like the neck of an acoustic double bass. While the fretless bass is played in all styles of music, it is most common in ...
,
Höfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German (originally Austro-Bohemian) manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments, such as violins, violas, ce ...
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...
baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...
Additional musicians
* Patrick Berkery – drums , percussion
* Michael Bloch – electric
rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...
, electric guitar
*
Meg Duffy
Meg Duffy is an American musician and guitarist who has played as a Session musician, studio musician on records by The War on Drugs (band), The War on Drugs, Weyes Blood, Perfume Genius, Sasami, and William Tyler (musician), William Tyler, amo ...
–
slide guitar
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that ...
pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...
* Otto Hauser – drums, percussion
*
Darren Jessee
Darren Michael Jessee (born April 8, 1971) is an American drummer and singer-songwriter who was the drummer in the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five. He has also worked as an instrumentalist for Sharon Van Etten and Hiss Golden Messenger a ...
– drums, percussion
* Michael Johnson – Arp Odyssey
* Josh Kauffman – amplified voice , electric guitar
* Parker Kindred – percussion
* Sterling Laws – drums, percussion
*
Lucius
Lucius is a masculine given name derived from Lucius (Latin ; ), abbreviated L., one of the small group of common Latin forenames () found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius probably derives from Latin word ( gen. ), meaning "light" (< ( Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig) – backing vocals
* Carter Tanton – acoustic guitar
* The Dove & The Wolf (Louise Hayat & Paloma Gil) – backing vocals
Technical
* Adam Granduciel – production, recording
* Shawn Everett – recording, mixing
* Nick Krill, Daniel Schlett, Nicolas Vernhes, Gabe Cox Wax and Jeff Zeigler – additional recording
*
Greg Calbi
Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey.
Biography
Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...
Sterling Sound Studios
George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.
Biography
Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...
Artwork and design
* Adam Granduciel – art direction
* Rob Carmichael – art direction, design
* Shawn Brackbill – center booklet photograph
* Dusdin Condren – photography