Lost in the Dream

Look, I love the sound, I love atmospheric space layered …whatever you want to call it. I just wish this one didn’t sound like the same 7 min jam for an entire album. Otherwise, it’d be up there!

Ein warmes, fließendes Werk voller Drive und Melancholie. Die Songs ziehen sich gelegentlich etwas, doch die Stimmung trägt beeindruckend weit.

Perfect for the kind of album it is meant to be, but what kind of album is that? I feel like other reviews, positive and negative, have offered various descriptors that add up to “Dad Rock in space.” For me, a new dad who has most of the Dad Rock canon rolling around in his head at any given time and who always needs more time to spend just staring at the stars, it’s very much appreciated.

So why not a 5? In a different rating system it might be a 8.5/10 or a B+ or A- or even “one of the best albums of the 2010s.” But ultimately I want a great record to help me do more than chill, and I have never quite found that side of this one. To me, that makes it a little less than my other go-to chill-out bands like My Morning Jacket or Beach House, who always mix up the vibe just enough to keep you awake. I’m open to the possibility that it’s there on this album too, but I’ve listened to it a lot since it came out and haven’t heard it yet.

The answer to the question: "What if Don Henley wrote 'The Boys of Summer' 10 more times?"

To be clear, I love "The Boys of Summer." And this album is not only listenable, but enjoyable. Nonetheless, I can't help but feel it's more Nostalgia-Bait than anything (even if pleasant).

I saw the War on Drugs in concert a couple years ago, and they were alright, but I think this music works better in the earphones (or, say, while driving down a country road at sunset).

It’s not a bad album, but it really should not be on this list when so many other, more consequential artists have been left off.

Hmm, I know I've heard songs by this band, but have no memory of what they sounded like. That's usually a bad sign, but we'll see.

So this is normal rock music, competently done. It sounds a lot like what Dire Straits would have sounded like if they were interesting; there are lots of blurry instrumental bits and pleasant, indistinct vocals. The wiki says these guys were influenced by the Spacemen 3, which I'm not really hearing, but maybe that's where the nice blurriness comes from.

I'm looking at 3 stars for this; it's not something I'm going to run out and look for a copy of since I don't really listen to normal rock music much anymore. But it didn't make me want to turn it off.

Very much a 2010's indie take on ambient while also being a Bob Dylan/Tom Petty worship band.

I remember liking Slave Ambient from them, and I feel like I've heard this before and liked it. But that was over a decade ago at this point, and at this point in time, it's really not doing a ton for me. Really sleepy music, even when it's moving. Good album, but pretty meh for me.

18-jarige ik was destijds helemaal overdonderd door de hypnotiserende riffjes en dromerige minutenlange outtro's op deze plaat. Lost In The Dream is vervolgens nooit lang weggeweest over de jaren heen. Af en toe gooi ik Under The Pressure gewoon weer eens aan en voor ik het weet kickt de grootse en toch persoonlijk en ingetogen hook van In Reverse alweer in. Echt een schitterend album.

This is mostly just fine throughout - the song length doesn't bother me until there's a mediocre song and then it is very grating. The first two tracks are honestly fantastic and maybe set the bar too high if anything

Totally listenable.
But totally unmemorable.
I listened to this twice and I can't actually tell you anything about it.
But I wasn't praying for it to end, so it can't be that bad

Lost in the Dream by The War on Drugs is long, intense, dark and, at times, a little dull.

There’s no denying the atmosphere they create, but the problem is how rarely they stray from it. The band clearly has a formula, and across this album they stick to it almost rigidly. The same chord progressions, production style and overall mood repeat themselves, which means the record never really evolves or goes anywhere. What starts as immersive gradually becomes monotonous, and the running time only amplifies that feeling.

That said, the album does finish strongly. When they tighten things up and add a sense of momentum, it finally clicks, reminding you why this band is so highly regarded.

Favourite tracks: Burning and Lost in the Dream, the closing stretch is easily the album’s best part.
Least favourite tracks: An Ocean in Between the Waves drags on and offers very little to justify its length.
Album artwork: Moody and understated, much like the music.

Favorite track(s): please there was more music coming out in the 2010s that wasn't trying to salvage rock please we can't keep doing this

Three or four songs in, I felt like this was a reasonably solid four, but then "An Ocean in Between the Waves" pushed me up to five, and the rest of the album didn't change my mind. I think I was in the right mood for this today.

I’m pretty meh on this.

*Good ambient sound
*I can hear the Dylan/Springsteen influences
*I prefer music with a faster tempo

New one to me again - nice!

And another I like! Vocals are Springteenesqe and Dylanesque…but that’s cool by me. Quite a bit going on here for me to unpack in the recording also. Sounds like the kind of stuff my daughter introduces me to….Sam Fender in particular.

Like it. Going into rotation.
Solid 3

n esperava ver por aqui e me toquei que nunca tinha escutado um album inteiro.

eh bão memo. mto importante pra esse "revival" de americana que teve na música estadunidense nesses anos aí. tem umas que são bem springsteen/dylan, mas com o toque indie rock jovem e fica até bem massa. bacana demais!!

I have heard this band mentioned in passing, but I had no concept of their music until listening to this. My thoughts are pretty scattered, but we'll see how I land after getting them all out on paper.

Listening to the opening track, "Under The Pressure", I really appreciate the vision here: a Dire-Straits-esque version of country new wave updated for the 2010s. Honestly it's not so different from the 'post country' kinda sound I've been noodling around with lately and it's nice to hear a working version out there in the world. However, the vocals do feel very Mark Knopfler meets Tom Petty meets Bob Dylan in a way that doesn't feel wholly original or authentic.
Track two, "Red Eyes", is the most popular track on the album, based on Spotify listens. It feels like it took A LOT of inspiration from Grateful Dead's "Touch Of Grey", like probably too much inspiration. A great song to take inspiration from, but on the heels of the derivative opener, it's not setting a great tone for the album.
Track three, "Suffering", is piano-forward (except for the big guitar solo) and its down-tempo really carries this listener into the dreamy place promised in the album title. So far, this is the most original sounding track on the record.
"The Ocean In Between The Waves" brings us squarely back into Dire Straits territory and I'm starting to wonder if I'll have the same complaint about this album that I had about the DS debut album... it's a great idea but the whole album is just slight variations of that same idea without much differentiation.
"Disappearing" doesn't do much to change my mind, but I appreciate the minimal vocals. This feels like a solid base for that 'post country' thing I mentioned earlier; but it needs a little more build and crescendo.
"Eyes To The Wind" delivers more of that build I was looking for, but it also takes us further down the same road. We're halfway through the album and it's all mostly the same.
Thank God for "The Haunting Idle" for pumping the brakes a little bit, we were getting pretty crazy. This slow ambient cooldown is exactly what the record called for.
"Burning" is all Bruce Springsteen. Honestly, not an unwelcome BPM boost, but I hate that we're back in derivative country.
"Lost In The Dream" is lost in the album. I'd maybe hoped for more from the title track, but by track nine we're pretty much locked into our thesis. Maybe this IS the thesis and the final track will go a different direction and launch us back into reality?
"In Reverse" does not promise to do that. It starts off as "The Haunting Idle" with 100% more vocals (Free!). It does swell into rock-adjacent territory, but settles back down to sleep again; not the finale I'd hoped for.

Ultimately, this record feels like an hour of very vibey background music. That's not high praise, but I honestly don't hate it. I just can't get past how much it borrows from the past. I think I end up in the same place I did with Lloyd Cole And The Commotions (the other 'we have Dire Straits at home' act I've found on this list).

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I knew Red Eyes coming in. I like it but it sounds so Bruce Springsteen to me.

Blend of Dylan and Springsteen. Red Eyes is a great tune. The rest was uninspiring. 2.5/5. Raising to 3.

soo epic