The War on Drugs shared a searing live rendition of “Pain,” from their upcoming album, Live Drugs, out November 20th via frontman Adam Granduciel’s own Super High Quality Records.
The live version of “Pain” — which originally appeared on 2017’s A Deeper Understanding — exchanges some of the slick studio polish for a bit of immediacy, best captured in the crackling guitar solo and Granduciel’s clenched-fist vocals: “I’ve been pulling on a wire, but it just won’t break,” he sings,” I’ve been turning up the dial, but I hear no sound/I resist what I cannot change/And I wanna find what can’t be found.”
Rather than capturing a sole concert, Live Drugs features cuts pulled from over 40 hard drives of recorded War on Drugs shows from across the years. Per a press release, it’s sequenced to reflect a typical War on Drugs set, while also capturing the way the band has evolved over the years. Along with selections from the War on Drugs’ four studio albums, Live Drugs will feature a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Accidentally Like a Martyr.”
“As a band leader, I always want to know where a song can go,” Granduciel said in a statement. “Even though we’ve recorded it, mastered it, put it out, and been touring on it, it doesn’t mean that we just have to do it the same way forever… It feels like it’s kind of a reset, to be able to put something out that’s a really good interpretation of the way we interpret our music live. Even though this recording is from a year of tours, this is really how these six guys evolved as a band from 2014 to 2019.”
The press release also noted that War on Drugs are at work on the follow-up to A Deeper Understanding. In August, the band remixed the Rolling Stones’ “Scarlet” for the band’s Goats Head Soup reissue.
Live Drugs Tracklist
1. “An Ocean Between the Waves”
2. “Pain”
3. “Strangest Thing”
4. “Red Eyes”
5. “Thinking of a Place”
6. “Buenos Aires Beach”
7. “Accidentally Like a Martyr”
8. “Eyes to the Wind”
9. “Under the Pressure”
10. “In Reverse”
From Rolling Stone US
