Welp, The War on Drugs are a band that I’ve dug very deep into at all. The reason I know of them is because, back in 2014, they released Lost in the Dream. Around that time I would have been in my first year university and was a bit of a Pitchfork nerd then. So when the album got a ‘Best New Music’ marking and a rating of 8.8, I was all in. “Let me see what this is all about”, and other thoughts of that degree. I wasn’t really into it all that much. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to it. But from what I can remember there was lot of music on there that wore a Bruce Springsteen influence on its sleeve. And I’m not all into the works of the Boss either. The one track on Lost in the Dream that got me on that first listen, and has stuck around in the saved songs pile ever since, was the one you see in the blog title for today.

‘Suffering’ is the third song on the album. I don’t have the knowledge to say what the general consensus is on it, whether it’s popular among War on Drugs fans or not so much. To me, it feels like one of those songs needed at a festival when it’s time to let whatever energy’s been built up before dissipate, so people can bring out their joints and have a smoke or just stand in their ongoing buzz and really let the music just wash over them. A proper mood-setter, one for the vibes. The chords alternate between, I think, F major and G major, for a good chunk of it with a lot of space in between the two to allow those notes to soak in. And then things properly open up for the smooth instrumental break when a grand piano is introduced alongside the established guitars and Fender Rhodes, alternating between C major and F major this time, before an echoing guitar solo then enters the frame. This is a track that’s very tasteful in its delivery.

I’ve been carrying out a practice of listening through a track and simultaneously reading through its lyrics before I go ahead and write about it on here. I’ve realised that in this case, I’ve never actually properly sung along to ‘Suffering’ all the way through. Only little phrases within, here and there. I’ve usually been more focused on the music around the words. But having read through them especially for this… I’m not gonna say the lyrics don’t make sense, but it does seem like they were definitely written to fit the music and evoke a sort of imagery and emotion rather than trying to lay out some sort of message or narrative. And I’ve got no problem with that because usually those are the songs I’m into. Probably makes sense as to why I like this one so much. If I was to hazard a guess, it’s probably about the end of a relationship of some kind But according to songwriter Adam Granduciel, he said the titular word during a scratch recording, and that alone influenced the sound of the end product. So whatever meaning people may want to have, possibly doesn’t go as deep as they’d like. All good with me though, I’ll say.