Lost In The Dream

Boring

This one is a real contradiction to me. I truly liked the instrumentation on several songs and was super won over but then slowly lost interest cause I just do not care for the vocals at all. He’s not a bad singer by any means, but listening to this album made me feel like this is what Future Islands would sound like if they had a singer I didn’t care for. He just sounds too much like other singers I don’t like (ex Bruce Springsteen). But I would recommend this album to somebody if I knew they liked both Bruce Springsteen and Future Islands.

It reminds me of those buskers with too many reverb pedals.

Roller-coaster, and I can't stand it

not my style

Unremarkable (to me)

Nichtssagender, dahinplätschernder Indie-Pop. Teilweise mit New Age und ganz dezenten Industrial-Elementen aufgepäppelt. Trotzdem langweilig und nichts besonderes.

Repetitive, lackluster, exactly the type of album that someone you can’t stand would love.

I'm joining the "war on drugs" on the side of the drugs. Favorite track: Under The Pressure 2.5/5

Not my genre, but i enjoyed 2 of them. Besides of that, very generic album, everything feels the same, only thing i enjoyed are those Brian Eno feels in a couple of songs

I liked the opening song, but every one afterwards sounded the same. His voice sounded like a bad imitation of Bob Dylan...I don't like Bob Dylan.

I don't like indie rock sorry

BGM personified. 2.5 Stars

Started off as an easy listen but then it got annoying towards the end with how repetitive the songs were

The War On Drugs is another band where I just don't get the hype for, sure have some good tracks. I especially like 'Thinking Of A Place', which is not even on this album. But even 'Lost In the Dream' has some moments. Just not many. For an album praised into oblivion nearly 50 minutes out of this one hour project is just mediocre rock soundscaping.

I got an ad, and thinking that the song I was hearing was a part of the album, I looked down and immediately got kind of upset that it just an ad. Semi-Jokes aside, the atmosphere was neat. I really liked that ambient track towards the end. Past that I don't see myself coming back to this one.

A little too mellow. Nothing to really grab you. Very repetitive.

As many others have said, it’s the same drumbeat on almost every song. The songs go on and on with little to no variation. It’s simply boring

This was not the mid 2010s for me. My experience of this era was bright bop, getting all tropical house with it. So coming to this cold without the cushion of nostalgia is hard. The album is ok but it's not enough to captivate me or inspire me to listen to it anymore than once. My favourite track is the one that sounds like a lost Springsteen song.

OK, but a bit dull

I don't love the Bob Dylan vocals with the somewhat generic sadboi indie music. It's not bad, but it's not very exciting. 2.5

Somewhat bland.

Very atmospheric, but i wouldn't reach for it again

Perhaps too much variation. Didn't get into this.

Wow

Inoffensive but so sleepy.

Eerste nummer klinkt erg off. De bas is nergens. Dat getik aan het begin werkt niet voor me, maar het is vooral de piano die gewoon niet lijkt te kloppen. Red eyes is een erg chill nummer. Suffering heeft een mooie staart en is verder ok. Ocean in between the waves is best leuk, maar de drummer had net zo goed een bandje kunnen zijn. Disappearing is voor mij filler in een album wat het echt niet nodig heeft. Eyes to the wind is wel weer gezellig. En hier stopt mijn rating denk ik. Ik kom hier niet zo goed doorheen. Ondanks dat ik een aantal nummers van ze echt wel fijn vind, is het als album niet geslaagd. Misschien kan mijn brainrot aandachtspanne niet dealen met dit alles, maar misschien is 4 minuten aan staart aan elk nummer plakken (hoe mooi die staart dan wel mag zijn) ook geen goede opbouw voor een album. Ik denk dat uiteindelijk the haunting idle me gebroken heeft. Daarna kwam alles niet meer zo binnen. Jammer, want het zijn wel veel nummers die welkom zijn in mijn grote spotify afspeellijst. 2/5 voor het album. Ben nu ook een beetje bang om de andere albums in hun totaliteit te luisteren. Misschien houd ik het maar gewoon bij singles.

Op papier checkt dit album heel veel boxes van dingen die ik chill vind in muziek, maar op een of andere manier weten ze het als een groot monotoon snoozefest te presenteren waarbij vrijwel geen enkel nummer m'n aandacht echt pakt. Als ik de klank van de vocals chiller had gevonden had het nog wel een aangenaam achtergrond album kunnen zijn maar voor nu niet iets waar ik echt meer van wil.

An album with a lot of emotion poured into it, especially in instrumentation. Combines folk with an almost dark synth presentation. Whole album feels like a long form jam session, which maybe feels tiresome at some points. Fave Tracks: Under the Pressure; An Ocean In Between The Waves; Lost In The Dream Worst Track: Eyes to the Wind

Ah come on give me something good

I did not vibe to this. This was uninteresting to me. I only liked the last song on the album.

This bored me. The songs were all quite simple, repetitive bits with vaguely dylan-esque vocal lines and layers and layers of instrumentation, but I didn't really get much beyond that. A few times they ended a song with 2-3 minutes of ambience - I think I'd be more interested if they leaned into that and worried less about the 'song' part. When the song did come through they reminded me of The Waterboys. Nothing wrong with the waterboys, but I feel like they already exist, so try and do something different.

Lame

Meh, didn't leave an impression on me.

Pretentious, pondering, over-long tracks.

2.5. No wonder America lost the War on Drugs when it’s this forgettable.

Entirely unoriginal and their spotify bio reflects how egocentric this group acts about their music. You aren't geniuses for playing bland indie rock with a bob dylan impression!

Otro disco que no me llamó la atención. Es notoria la inspiración de Bob Dylan en la voz y me gustan los momentos ambientales, los tiempos reflexivos que se toman, en lugar de simplemente ser canciones upbeat de 3 minutos. Es notoria la atmosfera melancólica y depresiva que el compositor intentó capturar en base a su estado emocional de ese momento. A pesar de estos aspectos, no encontré algo interesante a mi gusto.

Boringgg

Pros: Not the Kings of Leon.

There are moments when the record threatens to take off. But then it just sits down.

Boring. Not offensive, but very bland. And this is one of those albums on the list that I don't agree is influential because there's nothing new in it.

Aural wallpaper. I can't imagine how they stayed awake for an hour recording it. And didn't they win a Grammy for Best Rock Album (I think it wasn't for this one)? This is not rock.

First off, why is he doing his best Bob Dylan impression at the beginning of "Under the Pressure"? This creeped out again later in the album--not a fan of that style of inflection. As for the rest of it, the album is a bit too ambient for my taste. I can dig chill, laid-back music, but it does need to be going somewhere. I feel like there were too many moments on this album where I found myself wondering how long the songs were going to go on, even if they were enjoyable for the first few minutes.

I couldn't get into it at all - I listened to it and it entered my brain and immediately exited without leaving any trace it had ever been there. As I'm leaving 1/5 scores for things I actively dislike, I guess this gets: 2/5

A pleasant listen although most of the songs are a bit long. But for three stars I'm missing at least one song to really stand out. favourite: "Burning" 2,5

Heard it before. I really like Under The Pressure but overall the album is just not really for me 2/5

Just okay

Removed Album #12 Ever since I learned of there being 1089 albums on this website I have been interested in the unfortunate 88 that have had their "must-listen" status revoked. Fortunately, I don't have to quander any longer as I have just now assembled a list of 87 albums that have been expunged from future editions of the 1001 Albums book (I can live with not knowing what the forbidden, spooky, antisemitic 88th album was). Here's the list for anyone interested: https://pastebin.com/cSThNiK9 Interestingly, no albums released prior to 1999 have been removed from the list, which is eyebrow-raising as I can definitely think of a few that are worthy ("Shake Your Money Maker", "Scream, Dracula, Scream!", "Rip It Up", "The Electric Prunes", "Back to Mystery City"). Seems like Dimery and co. are taking the easy way out rather than actually revising and updating the list. There's some strange albums that have been zapped from the list. Of particular interest to me is that every Kings of Leon album has been scrubbed, which is funny. They also hit every album from Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, which I guess I can't fault. "They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" was also struck, which I strongly disagree with despite not really liking that album. "Gorillaz". I like that album, though I can agree with the removal. "Hail to the Thief", which is bullshit. Great album. "Frank" by Amy Winehouse. Both Beta Band albums, which I know this site isn't fond of. "The College Dropout" by Kanye, which is a surprising snub. I'm pretty sure that's one of the acclaimed ones. "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City", another surprise erasure. Holy shit, I need to shut up and talk about the album. It's alright. Mid-2010s indie and nothing more. Many of the songs start out with solid guitar hooks but lose themselves in the sauce as they're drawn out for longer and longer. Sometimes this loss of direction is nice, like with the way "Under the Pressure" lowers itself into some good reverberating guitars at the end, though most of the time these tunes go nowhere and leave me feeling frustrated. Some aspects of this album flat out do not work for me. The synth is a particularly big point of contention. I don't think it sounds good and serves as a detriment to the solid guitarwork. The vocals also aren't my cup of tea, though I do like how they're mastered at points with those wavy vocal effects. It's somewhat difficult for me to follow the lyrics of this album as a result - the vocals blur the line between being words and noise for me. Why was this album removed? I would need to know why it was on the list in the first place, which I do not. If I'm to take a shot in the dark, I would guess that this album was removed due to not being culturally relevant anymore. It's a very mid-2010s hippiecoded album, which is perhaps the most superficial movement you could ever be a part of. Would I save this piece of music from the album woodchipper? Have a nice slicing.

Technically good but it's a monotonous bore for me.

At first, it unfortunately sounds like a typical “indie” album from the early 2010s—boring and overused. My main issue—similar to what I felt with Franz Ferdinand’s fourth album—is that these so-called indie tracks are overloaded with synths, which, to me, is a clear sign of mediocrity. This is especially noticeable on the second track, “Red Eyes”—ironically, the most played song on Spotify. That said, “An Ocean in Between the Waves” isn’t bad; in fact, I’d consider including it on a compilation. When listening to “Eyes to the Wind,” the band comes off more like yacht rock at best. (“The Haunting Idle” would make perfect background music for a hot night with someone—though, unfortunately, it’s too short for that purpose.) And then there’s “Lost in the Dream”—a genuinely good song, though it’s clearly a Bob Dylan ripoff.

One of those albums that are so aggressively just “fine” that you have to remind yourself to be paying attention to it. I hate Bob Dylan and Don Henley and this guy is a healthy mix of both unfortunately.

I'm not sure. It's fine to listen to but nothing really grabs me. I just don't feel much of anything here. Mayne in another headspace idk

Yawn

Still having problems getting into the sound/production of indie bands formed in the mid-late 00s .. Did see these live at a psych rock festival few years back..thought they sounded a little like an 80s Scottish Band (Deacon Blue, Texas) and largely sticking with that..more neo-Aberdeenshire than neo-psychedelia.

La voz de Bob Dylan, la actitud de Bruce Springsteen y la guitarra de Dire Straits, trasladadas al indie etéreo de los 2010. Solo que de semejante amalgama acaba saliendo un gris monótono que no termina de arrancar. Aprecio la calidad musical (aunque la percusión es súper simple), su producción y la atmósfera onírica del álbum. Es bueno y muy relajante. Un álbum perfecto para tener de fondo mientras te concentras en algo. Pero no entiendo muy bien qué hace en esta lista.

Boring, fades into the background while listening.

Nothing exciting, an album of filler tunes

if bob dylan tried to make a space rock album and ended up with a somehow more boring version of coldplay

Fine, not my scene, really. Kinda samey and a bit overlong. Pleasant enough background music, inoffensive.

You like Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan? Well this guy obviously does and he's drawn out the songs to over 5 minutes so you can make sure you hear it! Like its fine but then it was a struggle to get through because the okay song then lasts past five minutes for no reason, not changing at all just still going the same... The album is a drag in more ways than just one. Tired. I'm glad its over.

I am an indie rock fan. But this is one of the most sterile-sounding albums I've ever come across. It's not unpleasant to listen to, but it's like what I'd imagine elevator indie rock music would sound like. The song "Burning" also clearly imitates the song "Young Turks" by Rod Stewart... i assume that was intentional? Weird.

Too sleepy to be interesting and too spacy to provide any solid grooves. I don't take much away from albums like this. A vibe is fine, but I want a little more from music than just vibe. I look for sounds that pique my interest, melodies with emotional dynamics, and grooves that make me want to move my body. I didn't find any of that here

That album seems like a prototype for so much that came after

Definitely not what I expected. This is like an indie tribute to a very specific type of 80s rock. I got a lot of 80s Bruce and Rod Stewart, but people nailed it with Don Henley. Here’s the problem, these songs are too long, and the singer is too mediocre to outshine those better songs. There’s a few highlights, but my god are they too long

Finns väl något där men det mesta känns bort skrubbat

Inoffensive and catchy enough. Nothing bad, nothing great. Happy to listen to this as background music but probably wouldn't want to intentionally listen to this. 2.5/5 stars.

Все какое-то однообразное, как фоновая музыка для кафе пойдет, один трек можно послушать, но альбомом это слушать невозможно скучно

Fav: Red Eyes Least Fav: The Haunting Idle “We have The Killers at home” The Killers at home:

I don’t get it

Bland

Opener song "under the pressure" feels like it matches the "theme" of the album closer to the end with the like, 3/4 minute wooey woo instrumental (he said before he realized every song had a wooey woo instrumental). Another "vibes heavy" prog rock album, the more spacey songs are pleasant but not super engaging otherwise, The Haunting Idle is just 3 minutes of reverbed guitar strumming and other random chords which i think the album could do without. It is easy to hear the Dylan/Springsteen influence in some of the guitar and vocals (eyes to the wind, burning), but like - I'd rather just listen to Springsteen or Dylan. The drums really do sound the same on every song which isn't the worst thing ever but does not help anything either. 4.7/10.

I’ve heard this band’s name but can’t say I ever knowingly listened to their music. Hey siri, play some indie rock! That’s kinda what it sounds like. Somber, with all kind of effects enveloping the songs. Overly serious and humorless as far as I’m concerned. Kind of the same feeling throughout.

Seems like they are just copying that “classic” American rock sound, done (and better) by so many before them. A lot of the songs were too long but I think that was to add to the dreamy-ness of the album.

War on war

I found this to be rather dull

# 433 : 11/03/2025 : I don't love it, I don't hate it. A couple of things stood out but I thought it was very ordinary quiet forgettable and I doubt I'll ever go back to this. every song used the same template, chords, ....everything. If you've heard one song, you've heard them all...

😳

Not really sure what i was listen to, a werid missmash of progrock and folk music. Got bored and gave up after the 4th song.

Sean Tanos Monday at 10:22 AM I was listening to this music in the car with my wife while we were driving to Minden on our break. I think I mentioned Bob music before, which is just music my friend Bob likes. My wife looked at me after the 2nd song, and asked if Bob had ever heard this band because she thought he'd love it. Definitely Bob music.

Imagine it's raining, and you hear thunder. You think "this is great weather to take a nap". That would be the scenario where this album would be okay. Otherwise, it's pretty bland.

boooorrrriiiinnnnggg. I couldn't wait til this was over. Was suprised to see this record was released by Secretly Canadian.

Felt like it never picked up. Just didn't capture my interest once.

not a big fan

the only drug they're gonna take off the streets is ambien. at least daft punk had the smarts to bring in nile rodgers to lively up their retrofetish horseshit. they worship a guy who said "don't look back" but make some Lot's wife-ass music.

This album started out with a great first song, and I was ever hopeful of a new discovery. It soon sunk into a dreary, repetitive mess. Thinking about the drums specifically I realized early on that I could play drums on this album. And that’s not a compliment.

Uh is this a album for bob dylan lovers that are also about to OD lol - idk it was downer

Man, this is tedious. I don't care for it. Lot of skilled musicianship and production, but it is clearly drawing from a lot of 80s pop rock sound. I don't know, this is some Free Willy soundtrack type stuff I can't get behind. 2/5 listen, 3/5 for the hard work and skill that went into making this.

num foi feito pra mim, mas cade o kurt vile

meh

Why would you create Bob Dylan Boomer music in 2014?!

Does Springsteen get the royalties? This passes me by in an audio soup of delay, reverb and plodding tempos. I find it dull and samey.

Meh

boringgg

I don't want to listen to dad rock anymore

Ezek a srácok is hallgattak valamennyi Neil Youngot. Meg Springsteent. Meg Dylant. 😆 Nem mintha panaszkodnék, nem rossz ez, de azt pl szeretném tudni, hogy miért teljesen ugyanaz a beat minden egyes szám alatt. Amilyen lelkes voltam az elején, olyan csalódott vagyok a végére, mert ez nagyonjó is lehetne, de így egy hallgatás után azt hiszem, hogy nem az.

honestly kinda mid. nothing stood out.

The music that plays during a dramatic scene in a teenager focused drama on the CW.

Decent album, not my vibe though

Dit is hem toch net niet

Drömmigt och sorgset. Lite för mycket domedagskänsla. Gränsen mellan tråkig och ljuv är hårfin och det lutar lite för ofta mot det förstnämnda. Bäst en kväll i en stuga någonstans i fjällen, alltså kommer aldrig lyssna igen.

About halfway through, this album is super boring. It's pretty much been the same song for the whole first side. It continues through the second half as well. I mean it's got some great guitar work, and great sounding guitars, but it's just not engaging at all. Pretty sure the drummer played one beat the entire album. It is super atmospheric, all the reviews saying to play it during a rainstorm or while driving through the woods are spot on. But that doesn't mean I would want to play this again. Even if it was raining or if I was driving through the woods. I was happy when it was over. 2/5

Ok I thought it started interesting enough. But then the songs, chord progressions, drums and even the "weird" noises don't sound original to me. I wanted to like this music but I ended up bored as fuck. It's all the same long boring crap. Where the fuck comes all the praise for this set of 10 dog turds???. Well sorry, I'm being too harsh. I'm sure this is someone's baby. But I'm still looking for the "goosebumps factor". Haven't found anything yet and, certainly, this is not it. What I can say is that I find this album less unbearable than the Wilco album I got a few days ago. So it's an improvement!. Still I'm not giving it more than 2 stars because this is not music I would listen again except for background music when I set my IPod to shuffle. Omg I just tried to listen to this album again. It's... So... Damn... Boring! :( and I hate that I feel this way about it because I need to see the positive side of life. But this is too much for me.

all sounds v similar. didn't enjoy heaps, not very interesting or emotional - just has a nostalgic feeling too it

All I know about this band is that Mark Kozelek wrote “The War On Drugs Can Suck My Cock.” Anyway, I put this on while I emptied out my shed and reorganized it a bit, and it was all fine until the wind started blowing during the last four tracks or so. And then, that’s when this record really started to piss me off. It sounds sort of like The Church at some points, but not as energetic or catchy. Apparently, what they’re going for is some sort of Heartland Rock revival (which I found out after listening to this), which it doesn’t really sound like. It sounds more like a Captured Tracks band made an AOR album. I don’t know, the vocalist seemed like he was kind of going for the affect that Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty has, but sexless and barred out.

an album full of the 7 minute songs i play on new works hour when i need to stall to think of some actually good songs

It’s ok as a background music, I guess… very bland It’s like a mix between bob Dylan’s vocal style, arcade fire-ish melodies and the most basic indie rock sound. Not one song stood out to me, an hour long kick-snare-kick and lots of reverb

Not good. So much reverb!

Boring and bland, not really gripping song writing. Great band and sound, but I have plenty of vanilla in the cabinet

bleh

I’m with drugs in this one.

Not my thing when the vocals sound like this

Not unpleasant, I rarely find music unpleasant, but just a bit bland

I was surprised to see this on here and was originally excited to listen and learn more about the band. While the production is great and the songs are well written and executed, reading more about Granduciel and his view of the album / band has left a bad taste. I like the use of guitar and harmonized melodic sections to confer working through the depressed / anxious states, and the general uncertainty of it all. Difficult to tell at times if it is more prideful or vulnerable and the integrity of the music vs the obsessiveness Granduciel had with it.

I listened to this album on a car ride on Friday and then three times on an international flight over the weekend. Grant, on that flight I was pretty heavy into Stardew Valley on the switch, but this album did nothing for me. It was fine as background music, but honestly I could discern where tracks started or stopped. Pretty unforgettable, but not deserving of a one.

Very generic, quite inspiring. Every song kind of felt the same.

A modern day dire straits - not a good thing nor a bad thing - needs a bit more war and a bit more drugs

It's not bad and unlisten-able, but its really boring and nothing I would voluntarily listen to. 2/5

Instantly forgettable - not bad by any stretch but not something I am ever going to listen again, or recognise if it plays.

не впечатлил

Kind of generic dad rock

This album reminds me a lot of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. album, including all the things that annoyed me about that. A snare drum every 2 beats for 45 mins and mostly samesy music. I will say that this had far more ambient music than I was expecting based on the radio edits of Under Pressure and Red Eyes that I've heard. Overall though, pretty underwhelmed by this album and by most of what I've heard from The War on Drugs in general. An Ocean In Between the Waves is a cool build up of a song.

Why on earth would you try to sound like Dylan? Why?

He sounds a bit like ... Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and so on. Unfortunately, sounding a 'bit like' a genuine artist means that they aren't as good as that artist. I'm not really a fan of Dylan or Petty, but if I want to listen to someone who sounds like them....I'll listen to them!

snooze

Meh. Didn’t grab my interest at all

Not a bad record. Not much differentiation between songs but they have a nice sound

Not profound, some other reviews are lowk trolling.

Opens like some of the most derivative 80's music I've heard, and doesn't really improve from there. Sounds a bit like Bruce Springsteen with better guitar playing and songwriting, but a lot less edginess.

Reminds of U2 but softer

Sounds a bit like Springsteen if he just took a sleeping pill.

i guess it was fine. Didn't really see the hype on the album

quite bland

I guess there's nothing offensively wrong with this (except for the drums being rubbish and repetitive) It just had no personality, it's like if you asked AI to make Americana

This was just kind of boring to me. A blend of The Eagles softer rock and Bob Dylan's folk. It wasn't bad at all - it was good to have on as background, but none of it felt memorable or stood out.

Snoozefest

Once again I’m left bemused by why someone felt strongly that this warranted a place on this list. Perhaps it was close to a publication deadline and they wanted to take a punt on something new with a mildly evocative name. Sadly the music is as bland as rich tea biscuits with one or two moments of vague interest.

not for me - 2

Ok. Klinkt oprecht best prima Muzikaal leuk, zang is het standaard indierock. Maar jezus, waarom moet elk nummer zo achterlijk lang zijn? Zo goed is het allemaal niet? En ik vind het ook echt allemaal veel te standaard indierock stuff. Daarnaast klinkt elk nummer echt precies hetzelfde, een beetje variatie had fijn geweest! War on drugs? Ik sta aan de kant van de drugs eerlijk gezegd. FAVO: Suffering

More like the Snore on Drugs ha ha ok let’s hear the next one

Pretty slow and boring, quite monotone vocals

Not at all clear to me what puts this in the Top 1000? It starts promisingly enough on Under the Pressure, and even Red Eyes is ok in a kind of “meh” way, but really, there is nothing ground breaking, genre busting, innovative, or even just that catchy to anything here. Although reading their Spotify bio (written by themselves), they seem to think they are pretty good. I tend to disagree.

It's indie and atmospheric and melancholic so I should like it, but it didn't grab me at all. Perhaps it's because the album started off well then all the songs sounded the same - no memorable melodies, the basics of songs e.g the drumming was the same, so it became just a dull, boring and too long album after around fifteen minutes.

I've never been able to get into this band like I did Kurt Vile, who deserves an album on this list much more than they do. No wonder he left the band to do his own thing. Superficially it sounds similar, but I'm quite bored by this as it ends up all sounding like one long song if you're not paying close enough attention. It doesn't help that they average 6 minutes per song. I hear nothing interesting in this that makes me want to go back and listen again. It's not that it's terrible, it's just not quite anything?

Element of lots of bands influence on this. Couldn't quite get into it but was good to hear

Boring. Production too wishy washy

Didn't grab me

Oh LORD it's so boring, why are the songs so long, why are the drums the same. It's like melancholic music for the depressing scene in a netflix soap for teenagers, real head in hands because I didn't get invited to the prom vibes. The saving grace was the change in tone in the middle of most of the songs, but was this genuinely pleasing or freeing from the endless prison the songs had become.

There's being inspired by The Boss and then there's trying to be The Boss. Big difference not recognised here.

Yep, this is certainly indie rock from the mid 2010s. There are some nice bits in the more upbeat songs, but the whole package is repetitive and overlong.

I've always found this band to be very MOR. It's like they were specifically designed for boomers who are in the "why dont they make REAL music anymore" camp. Being influenced by Bob Dylan, Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc is fine and all, but I'd question whether this is original enough to be included in this book. "Burning", for ex, is way too reminiscent of Dancing in the Dark. The first two songs are quite good though, and the production is great. Just unoriginal and very repetitive.

I listened to this, and my first thought was that this is just some old '80s MOR Don Henley bullshit. Looked at the reviews and found I was not alone. It's not bad, it's just not interesting, and there certainly doesn't need to be an hour of it - every track could be 25% shorter and nothing would be lost, and then this would clock in at a far more reasonable 45 minutes.

You know how sometimes something comes up and you think why have I never listened to them more? And then you listen and there is the answer. Kept thinking this sounds like Springsteen, who I’m not a great fan of, but without the occasional banger. And it’s a bit like Arcade Fire but without the appeal. This just trundled by unengagingly

++: Under the Pressure, Red Eyes, The Haunting Idle +: An Ocean in Between the Waves, Disappearing, Eyes to the Wind, Burning, In Reverse +-: Suffering, Lost In the Dream 7,7/10

The least shocking record I have ever heard. I can respect the artistry and mature songcraft/sound design but it could not speak to me personally any less than it did.

Looks like this is the best this band has to offer, and it's not much. Derivative as can be, inde elevator music. Pales in comparison to their peers.

probably not good

I swear it's all the same guitar and the same rhythm.

Uninspired, uninteresting, bland, and boring. This album is very generic sounding rock music, and not much else.

I like An Ocean In Between The Waves. Overall though it isn't that interesting for me unfortunately.

Maybe if I gave it another listen I'd like this more but this was just like a combination of Arcade Fire. M. Ward, Eagles but make it 2000s (even though this came out in 2014?), Tom Petty, but worse.

Rock on sleeping drugs

a little too lite, a little too late.

Not in my edition of the book! 2014. 2 stars. The aural equivalent of a hipster non-alcoholic craft beer.

nothing really happened

Might make good background music for a low key party where guests don’t want their conversation interrupted. The monotonous rhythm tracks, plain vanilla vocals and heavily processed guitar and keyboards will help it fade into the backdrop. I counted 18 musicians and 16 studio members in the Wikipedia article - for an “indie” album. Really?? With that staff I would have hoped you’d find something creative to showcase. But maybe I expect too much. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t dislike it. But on a bucket list of must-listen albums this is a head scratcher.

dude rock (derogatory)

Stop this. No more generic sad men please. Please.

NoThe bad but not my style at all

Easy listening soft rock for millennials. Art is supposed to make you feel something, all this makes me feel is bored. The soundscape stuff has the most interesting ideas on the album, but it's short lived and completely displaced by this derivative soft rock nonsense.

Never heard of this band before, at least, not that I can recall hearing of them before... and that kind of settles that. Not that the album is bad, it has it's merits, and I'm sure that there are plenty of people who will place this album in their top 10 all time, but those persons probably were born after 1999... There's no point in dragging most of these songs out for so damn long. And the singer has nothing to do with Dylan. And stop comparing this with '80s music, the only '80s relation is the sound of the snare drum, and at times a slight The Waterboys vibe, however, just by mentioning this, I feel like I've blasphemed as The Waterboys are sooooooooooo much better than this. 2 ** for the effort

Not particularly notable.

Sounds like what would happen if Arcade Fire decided to cover some Coldplay songs. Great news if you are a fan of Coldplay. Not so great if you prefer the other.

Fairly boring music that all sounded the same to me

Very boring and monotonous. Not a great soundtrack for driving through the mess of Catania streets

Nee. Das seichte Geeiere war nicht nach meinem Geschmack.

This was supposed to be right up my lane....it isn't. Some songs aren't bad. 1.8/5

When a rest is required, I go here.

Not for me

absolute snoozefest

i was enjoying this album for maybe 3-4 tracks, and then i realized all the songs sound the same. add that to their meandering sound, i honestly grew drowsy while listening to their music and not in a good way. wish i could have enjoyed it more :(

I found it very difficult to emotionally connect with this album. I’m not sure if it was the flat vocals or the largely bland instrumentation. The sound mix also seemed quite muted, which I’d imagine was an intentional choice but it kind of just threw a wet blanket over everything for me. There are some nice sections of guitar riffs that come through cleaner but they’re about the only highlights. Good for rainy day background music that you largely want to ignore. Listened to: walking in Prospect Park. Favorite tracks: An Ocean in Between the Waves

I'm reminded of a phrase I used to say alot in the 2000's: "I've heard of them but I haven't heard them." This project hits you first with the imagery of the album cover which imprints expectations on the content, but I suppose it's fair since it's basically the same as flipping through records at the music store. From the cover alone, it looks a bit depressing and isolated; let's see what the music offers. Oddly, this sounds like it's targetted towards the middle-aged. Maybe it's the breathy Don Henley/Bruce Hornsby/Bob Dylan vocals, but this seems to purposely steer away from the bright pop "who cares about tomorrow??" of modern music (of their time) and go straight into serious and boring adult-contemporary. Holding that last note for a full minute on "Under the Pressure" tells me they are wanting to do something epic and grandiose--and the soundscape is good--but it's just not . . . exciting, and I blame the drummer. Phil Collins once said your band can only be as great as your drummer; you can have a crappy band with a great drummer, but you'll never have a great band without a great drummer. Time proved him correct. I feel if maybe this drummer played slightly ahead of the beat and approached his playing as if writing a programmed drum part (with more intricate hi-hat rhythms and some ghost strokes on the snare), he would add more momentum and interest to keep the suspended synth notes moving. Consistently, it's just bass snare bass snare (save "Disappearing", but that is just the mixing engineer adding some delay to the bass and snare in an effort to save humanity from this tired beat!). "Red Eyes" and "An Ocean In Between The Waves" picks up the tempo a bit, but the formula is the same song after song. I actually like the sparse audition-for-a-movie-soundtrack of "The Haunting Idle." At least it breaks from the norm. They can clearly create atmosphere, but they generally don't do anything with it. "Burning" is the best thing on here, smartly placed after "The Haunting Idle" which automatically benefits from the stark change of pace with its driving Arcade-Fire-playing-"Born To Run" beat and more 80's-sounding synths. Not bad, but not much more than background music to me. The band name, album name, and the song titles are all thought-provoking and evocative, but Lost In The Dream is an all-you-can-eat buffet of a mediocre meatloaf without any apps, sides, or desserts. Another would-be 3 that I dock an additional point for undeservedly being on this list.

This is what it would sound like if Paul Simon (Rhythm of the Saints era) was to sing over Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, but with more of an atmospheric/ cinematic feel. Overall cool sounds but not enough diversity of songs for me. The songs started to feel a bit repetitive. The thing about that Paul Simon album is he gave you a little bit of everything on it. I remember Quincy Jones talking about producing Thriller and saying basically that nobody can really know if they are going to write a hit album or not, you just try to write strong songs and give people some variety to listen to. I feel like this War On Drugs album just kind of kept giving me a lot of the same on each song.

I liked the first song, I just didn’t need to listen to it for an hour. Turned out to be a loooooong, boring lump that all sounded the same.

This sounds like the Eagles if they were even more boring.

If you still live in your hometown and have nostalgic associations with Springsteen, Dylan, Tom Petty, and all other heartland rock, then you’ll enjoy this well-made, immaculately-produced pastiche album. But be warned, it’s a lot of pastiche, with songs that drag past the 5-minute mark and really test your adoration for what essentially equates to a studio cover band. If this was 30 minutes long, I might be giving it a little more praise, even as pastiche. But at 60 minutes, it is the definition of exhausting. It’s nothing new, and unless you’re a production nerd, I can’t imagine what the appeal here is compared to its own influences. Its presence on this list doesn’t really make sense either – just include more of those classics, or new albums that present new sounds. It’s okay for what it is, but I knew that after the 3 minute mark, and then I stopped caring.

Underwhelming Psychedelic Rock. At its best it sounds like Ambient.

The war on entertaining music

Every song sounds the same.

..(.

It’s not for me

Started off as a dull razorlight and just got worse from there. Low 2.

Pretty boring.

Sounds... fine. But doesn't do anything for me.

I would argue this band could use the influence of drugs instead of waging war on them. This was an hour of boring, repetitive fluff. Shitty version of Ryan Adams with a Bob Dylan impersonator singing mixed with some soundscape noises.

Really slow and boring. It felt a bit self-important which I can’t stand. I mean this in the rudest way possible, but it sounds like a forgettable 80s movie soundtrack.

I’ve heard of this band, but I had never listened to any of their stuff. I could definitely listen to it again, although I wouldn’t run out and buy the album.

Poor Man's Dylan. No really memorable songs.

Interesting - loved some tracks

Released in 2014, this wasn't quite what I expected. This had a Bob Dylan feel (minus the voice). Overall it was meh.

This album starts off with a dollar store Don Henley and ends with dollar store Arcade Fire. I’ll give them an additional star for proving they can actually change the drums since they were exactly the same for the bulk of this album.

2/5. I think it needed more atmosphere.

Tråkigt!

to have such a killer name but be so milquetoast musically. could i write poetry to this? n

This album could be used to calibrate the machine that determines the exact middle of the road.

Waste of a great band name.

It was fine just a bit boring to me.

Tom Petty already exists

I would listen to this if it was only a track or two. But 10 tracks were a bit too much and a bit too melancholic and samey for me.

The war on drugs is a losing battle but this album gets a win. I definitely felt lost in a dream, especially during the end sequences on much of the songs. I get influences of Neil Young and Dylan. It's a slow burn and wouldn't necessarily play any songs individually again but a good project album for the band.

Oh, this album is just so disappointing... Don't get me wrong. It's not terrible (hence the 2 stars). The lyrics are pretty thought-provoking, and the sound is high-quality (particularly where synths are involved - mixing is fun and immersive). Some of the tracks are pretty good on account of their catchiness, including Red Eyes and Lost In The Dream. The primary mistake made by The War On Drugs is a failure to deliver anything exciting, energetic, or (sonically) volatile. Nearly every track sounds exactly the same for the entire 7 minutes, and at least half of the tracks bear the additional burden of sounding identical to each other. This isn't helped by the fact that the drumming is extremely standard and uninteresting (one-a-two-a-three-a-four-a- throughout every song). The vocals aren't anything particularly interesting either. They're perhaps Dylan- or Petty-esque, especially in the title track, but this only accentuates the difference between those bands and The War On Drugs in terms of how good the rest of the music is. Oof. The album also fails to justify the long track runtime on all of their longer songs. In general, these songs drag quite a lot, increasing the length of what should've been a 40-minute album (or less, if you remove the duplicate tracks) to roughly an hour. If the band was trying to create a slew of "epics", a la In The Court Of The Crimson King, they didn't succeed. Key tracks: Under The Pressure, Red Eyes, Lost In The Dream

Technically excellent, but not really my style.

I had liked a couple of songs of theirs in the past but this was soooo beige. It all sounded the same! Not at all engaging

Meh

What's that Lassie? A Don Henley soundalike me lacking Don's way with a hook has fallen down a well? Shall we just leave him there? Other choices they could have from 2014 to name just a few: Sharon Van Etten (broadly similar but can write a tune), Sleaford Mods, Run the Jewels, Scott Walker & Sunn O))), etc

this shouldn't be on the list. nothing for me here

boring.

very similar to Young the Giant. I can't really make out what the vocalist is saying because of all that echo. Total miss for me. I didn't have the attention span to sit through more than a few tracks. I'm declaring war on the war on drugs.

That poor drummer playing the same beat over and over song to song. I found this really boring but can see why people like the vibe. Zzzzz

C- Under The Pressure 2 Red Eyes 2 Suffering 2 An Ocean In Between The Waves 2 Disappearing 2 Eyes To The Wind 2 The Haunting Idle 2 Burning 2 Lost In The Dream 2 In Reverse 3 Exceptionally boring. Not bad, per se, but boring.

Not my tempo or voice. I’m not sue if I just heard any music at all.

Again, meh

A great background album. The jams were repetitive.

als das album damals erschien und die singles an allerlei ecken mit indie-vorliebe zu hören war, spülte sich der sound dermaßen weich durch meine gehörgange, dass wenig hängen blieben. heute fallen mir neben einigen guten songs insbesondere zu beginn (under pressure, disappearing) vor allen dingen die referenzen an die ausufernder rockkapellen voriger jahrzehnte deutlicher auf. big band als indie rock habe ich aber bei calexico, arcade fire und anderen in weitaus spannender in erinnerung.

Literally disappeared into the background while I was working. Not bad, but certainly not good enough to be on a list like this. 2.4.

reminds me of that song by espin a little. Decent background but not my type of music. 2

It's hard for me to explain but I feel like the vocals don't match the production on each song. Regardless this album is too one-dimensional. I feel like if I heard this at 18 I would've really liked it, but my music taste is different now.

Almost big-red-chaired it when the vocal first came in. Stuck with it and… it was ok. I’ll probably never listen again.

Too long and monotonous for its own good. Their sound in itself is fine for two songs or so, being a combination '60s folk rock vocals and instrumentals that sound a bit like The Killers. The problem is that nearly every song sounds the same, which is an issue when the record pushes one hour. It also feels too reliant on its older musical influences, because barely anything of value was added by the indie sound. An indie-Americana record sounds great in theory, but this was not a very strong or varied application of it. Red Eyes was a good song, but everything else was pretty bland.

Had to listen a second time as it didn't register, fairly more.

Monotonous, depressing, sounded as if recorded in a tunnel.

Harmless enough and fine as background music but not particularly memorable. Hints of Jackson Browne and Wallflowers but pretty forgettable the minute the album was over.

Got really bored around halfway through but finished. Realized I had listened to this before and bailed halfway through that time. If you like the atmospheric guitar work, check out William Tyler (you don't have to suffer through Dylan/Petty-ish vocals because there are no vocals).

They sound like they're trying to be Springsteen so bad but end up just being Sting. I'm not sure why they felt the need to extend each song past 7 or 8 minutes but it was a total snoozefest.

Every song sounded similar. Flashes of Bob Dylan and JCM.

Je sais que j'ai déjà écouté ce groupe mais cet album m'a pas spécialement plu ou déplu. Des fois ça m'a rappelé U2 2.5?

This isn't anything unique. It's rather like a dull version of Tom Petty.

Another just fine album.

Wasn't really feeling it, I just think there's more interesting stuff of the same genre and era

Lost in the Dream by The War on Drugs attempts to channel the spirit of 80s rock but falls short due to excessively long songs, derivative sound reminiscent of Chris Rea, and a vocal delivery that feels forced in its attempt to emulate Bob Dylan. While there are moments of interest in its production, the album's shortcomings outweigh its strengths, making it a mixed listening experience overall. NUMBER OF BANGERS - 1 STAND OUT TRACK - Red Eyes

This is one of those Legendary Indie Vibe Albums that I could never get into, probably because it sounds too much like a 00s band trying to record an 80s Don Henley album. (Also, there was one song that I skipped and then the next song started and it sounded literally exactly the same.)

This reminded me of a band from the 90s, Hothouse Flowers? But with less energy. Irish band if I recall. I preferred HHF.

Eh.

Songs seemed like chill vibes but these songs were like 2 minutes too long for me to get into them. Maybe another day

Just not very interesting to me.

It's okay. I get why people like it, but I wouldn't listen again. For me, songs seemed too long and a bit boring. Fave song 'Eyes to the Wind'. 2/5

Bob Dylan vibes. Not bad, not my favorite.

It was not that bad, but i expected something deeper.

This is way too Bruce Springsteen adult contemporary for me in songwriting, singing and instrumentation, except it was recorded more recently.

Background music and not in the cool Muzak way

pretty standard tbf

I can understand the appeal but for me it's stuck in an awkward middle zone where it's not rocking enough to make it entertaining, nor is it moody enough to make it past the surface level. Kurt Vile would go on to make a better version of this.

This one was rough. Bad arcade fire, boring, and dated. I did not need this

Nice sound, but not overwhelming and will probably age. Not my cup of tea. More of the same.

The only thing more boring than Springsteen is a Springsteen knock off. The songs are all dull and never go anywhere.

Easy enough to listen to, but I found it pretty dull and derivative.

Mostly forgettable outside of a couple of standout songs in Suffering and Eyes To The Wind, I was not impressed by this album. Oftentimes, it felt as though the structures of the songs simply weren’t enough to warrant the typical 5 minute plus runtimes. The instrumentals would trudge along using the same beat with little to no dynamics for measure upon measure. It appears to take strong influences from Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, but despite their unenthusiastic efforts, this band isn’t nearly as interesting as either. I will say, for background or road trip music, you could do worse. However, on the whole, it’s just not worth the time for critical listening. Meh. 3.5/10

It's all a bit dad-rock, gentle fist pump while sipping a cup of tea for me. Since others have pointed out the drums thing, it's really bothering me. It must be the most dull band to play in as a drummer. Even though there's plenty of layers of sound to the whole thing it still somehow feels really anaemic. And it's just so bloody boring, christ.

Saavat silloin tällöin musiikillisen idean tai kehittävät grooven, jonka tahtiin Jaggerkin voisi heiluttaa persettään. Mutta mitään biiseistä ei tarvitse kuunnella loppuun, sillä puolivälin jälkeen tietää, ettei niissä ole tulossa mitään uutta. Ja jos tulee, vika ei ole kuulijassa.

Generic. Nothing memorable on here at all. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good.

Boring. This band seem to think swaddling entirely mid indie rock in swatches of reverb and synth washes equals an interesting listening experience. About the only thing I liked was hearing the singer, in real time, calibrating how much Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen or Bob Seger he wants in the mix. Just a tasteful soupçon here and there, sweet listener!

This is such a cool name for a band, and such a disappointing one for a band that sounds like this. I don't hate it, but it totally reminds me of that one non-folksy Ryan Adams album, except he's a better singer. (I think? Do I care?) But, man, this would be such a killer name for a hardcore band...

boring

It was ehhhh. Felt like one really long song.

Inoffensive but very boring.

A fairly boring album that didn’t have any real high points for me. While I can hear what they’re doing and why people might enjoy it. It just isn’t for me.

Another of those bands that people seem to have huge admiration for, but I totally fail to understand why. Springsteenesque Americana that has been passed through a pale-and-interesting Instagram filter does nothing for me. Having said that, I enjoyed this a bit more than I expected.

Eh

Quel ennui... Il y a toujours à peu près 20 secondes où on se dit que ça pourrait être sympa, puis on se dit qu'en fait nan c'est la même chanson qu'avant et que cela va être la même chose pendant beaucoup trop longtemps comme un grand verre d'eau tiède dilué. Alors pourquoi par "Red eyes" pour garder un écantillon représentatif, mais je passe mon chemin.

Just okay.

I’ve always liked Red Eye. It’s a nice sound but every song kind of sounds the same.

Passionately unremarkable music that somehow manages to leave the impression of crying in one's sleep.

good LORD this was a long album

20/100 Based on this scale: 1 star - 0 to 19 2 stars - 20 to 39 3 stars - 40 to 59 4 stars - 60 to 79 5 stars - 80 to 100 This starts off sounding like a tribute to Tom Petty. Then, it gets more boring.

Boring.

Meh

It didn't make me want to put a screwdriver in my ear, but I really had to force myself to finish this one. I'm sure it's great in some circles, but I don't belong to any of them.

If "meh" was an LP, this would be it

Meeeeeeh

I gave this album a shot when it came out. It never caught on with me. It still doesn't. It sounds like a boring version of Kurt Vile.

I bought this album and then I sold this album. Never cared for it, not a fan for some reason.

Extremely mid

Love the first song. Then they all sound the same. Same drum line, same chord progressions, just different tempos. Saw them live and it was the most boring show ever.

Not offensive to listen to, quite bland and meandering. Not to my taste but can appreciate the craft.

The instrumental start to the first track was promising, but then the singing started. The singer is somehow managing to mimic Bob Dylan and Springsteen at the same time and oooof, that does not work for me. Can't tell exactly why I hated this album so much. Went back and forth for me between "inoffensive" and "want to turn this off" but the vocals ultimately killed it for me. And the length. And the samey-sameness of the songs. I love some fuzzed-out non-structured albums, perhaps it was just really wrong vibes for a rainy Sunday morning? IDK. Tempted to give it 1 star, only giving it 2 for the song "Burning" which stood out from the morass.

of course these men also did a podcast about themselves it just sounds to me like a lot of other music that I'm like "yeah this is fine" and then I find out the group has a rabid following in their local tristate area and all of their fans think they're revolutionizing the rock scene rather than saying "yeah the guitar is fun and the vibes are chill, it's nice to drink a beer to." the venue probably sells PBR tallboys for like six dollars. it is walking distance from an inexplicably fancy bowling alley and four establishments selling very bad wings I actually did enjoy some of some of the tracks as a "doing stuff with music on" vibe. Burning was fun, for example. low points were when it seemed like the vocalist was trying to sound like Bob Dylan or Don Henley

Nostalgic, pleasant, but blurs together. Lots of comparisons to Dylan/Henley. I know they’re an indie fave but I don’t get the hype. Good background music, and I like “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” which receives heavy college radio play, but that’s about it.

Beautiful production and the guy's voice is pretty nice, but I sound the song writing a bit lacklustre. Favourite songs: Red Eyes, Disappearing.

Générique

As my mom says, "I was bored to tears." Songs are all pretty similar.

I don’t get the appeal. It’s boring as fuck.

nu inteleg ce cauta in lista asta

Eh this is my 2nd time trying this album out. Snore. Chill + too slow.

Drums are a bit overly simplistic. Vocals are alright, guitars are more ambient than forward driving. Definitely no Cage the Elephant but it's not bad in the first song. Not particularly a fan of songs that just drone on for 5 minutes doing nothing. Overall, it feels more shoegazey than Indie.

Under The Pressure // Suffering //

This washed over me completely, I barely noticed it. I probably owe them another listen but Spotify wrapped is coming up soon and I need to prioritise getting the embarrassing stuff out my top 5 so I have no time for redos.

Maybe I’ll try it again, but everything feels the same

God, what a snoozer!

Nothing of note in here. No idea why it's on this list.