Slave Ambient is the second album from Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs, and the followup to last year’s Future Weather EP. That EP is important to mention since it was released because Slave Ambient was taking longer to record than anticipated. Slave Ambient boasts new versions of two songs from Future Weather, and another of the songs is predated by an instrumental from the EP. This is all fine. Slave Ambient is it’s own entity, made richer by the hints that were given about what was to come.
The songs on the album meander, and like any War on Drugs record it takes a few listens for the songs to distinguish themselves. The songs are hazy, and jammy, and often completely spaced. It occasionally sounds like a stoner’s dream record, but it’s just as good blind sober.
Not to say this album doesn’t have fantastic eye opening moments, because it does. The first track, “Best Night” opens the album with a general theme that seems to run through the album. “I believe that I’ve been cursed” sings songwriter Adam Granduciel through a mass of freewheeling guitars and keyboards. He continues: “It’s you I hope survive without fighting.” It’s a song about struggling through the frothy bullshit of life, while trying to ignore the fact that you’re doomed anyways. It’s heavy, heady stuff, and the musical atmosphere suits it perfectly.
A new version of Brothers from Future Weather is next, and it’s at least as powerful as the earlier version. Granduciel sings about wondering where his friends went, and why they didn’t take him. It’s all very transitory. The narrator looks around, isn’t sure if he likes what he sees, or where he’s been, but he’s reminiscing nonetheless. “My life is filled with fear, I can’t believe in the truth.” It’s a little terrifying in a way.
Following that is “I Was There,” one of the album’s standout tracks. It’s a ramshackle waltz, breezy, and piano driven, filled with noodling guitars and Dylan-esque vocals. It winds its way through like a slow train rumbling past some obscure mid-west city.
The best thing here is “It’s Your Destiny.” “I’ve been struggling,” Granduciel sings through guitar and keyboard loops, and we’re right there struggling with him, doing our damnedest to avoid whatever fate the world has in store for us.
The album continues to float through a few more songs, and short instrumental pieces, before the closer “Blackwater Falls.” It’s a mostly acoustic song, similar to “Barrel of Batteries,” which closed the first War on Drugs album, Wagonwheel Blues. This song is much deeper, however. “There is a train we take downtown,” Granduciel sings. You get the feeling of people hanging out on the outskirts of town. The narrator asks someone to remember him, and he sings about “the smell of defeat,” and how “there is no way to carve your righteous path of rage.” It’s very melancholy, the song is loss, and leaving, and lyrically unsure, but the music is perfect. Once the electric instruments kicks in the song moves at an assured pace, leaving just before it outstays its welcome.
Slave Ambient doesn’t have any monster classic songs like “Arms Like Boulders” from Wagonwheel Blues, and there isn’t an eight minute drone piece like Future Weather’s best song “The History of Plastic.” These are missed at first, but soon enough the album reveals itself as its own thing. It’s one long jam, best heard as a whole. It takes a while for the songs to differentiate themselves as their own entities but that’s not a bad thing. The production is incredibly layered. A listener can spend a lot of time picking out strange chord progressions, and other odd noises. This is easily one of of 2011’s best records, and is not to be missed.
Best Night
Brothers
I was There
Your Love is Calling my Name
The Animator
Come to the City
Come for It
Its your Destiny
City Reprise #12
Baby Missiles
Original Slave
Black Water Falls
