The War On Drugs – Wagonwheel Blues

This is a rather poor quality pressing along with pretty awful mastering. The music is flat, tinny, and heavily compressed. Was expecting better given the sound of the other War on Drugs releases.

Album itself is great, pressing leaves a lot to be desired - especially compared to their more recent ones, which are rich and quiet. Lottttts of surface noise, especially on B2 which ruins a beautiful instrumental. I'll probably eventually splurge for a repress.

Any news about a rerelease of this? Would love to get it but haven’t heard good reviews about the original pressing.

Love this record! Fantastic. Anyone else not happy with this pressing? Mine came dirty from the factory :(

I’ve been following War On Drugs on their current tour [November 2011], and will be home by the 16th of December when they roll into Philadelphia; home for both them and me. I haven’t had this much fun since I rocked around the southwest with Wilco, wondering why no one has thought to set these two bands on the road together, where they’d hang like windblown weathered signs, directing demented fans of the sublime to venues filled with crackling speakers, droning keyboards, layered lo-fi acoustic buzz, wondering shifting lead guitars, and sleepy bleary-eyed percussions that create a touchable organic atmospheric haze ... one where they’re rocking me back so far I nearly fall over. Then again this could just be my present state of mind, a state War On Drugs enhances to the max, leaving me stumbling for a seat, and stuttering for words.

War On Drugs isn’t so much a band as it’s a concept, one similar to what Pete Kember [Sonic Boom] creates with Spectrum, the brainchild of visionary Adam Granducial, a man’s who’s influences are worn on his sleeve, bending notes and ideas to shimmer a new musical vision across a star filled sky. If you’re new to“Wagonwheel Blues,” it’s not like their later material, never the less, it is the groundwork which serves as a base for their future outings. All of the songs are top notch, save for the two instrumentals, and I’ve know idea why they were included, other then to add more product, because they certainly don’t act as lead-ins to the following numbers. BUT, I'm not a converted fan of instrumentals, and these aspects will be part of Adams signature in the next two albums as well, so he's certainly seeing something that I'm not aware of yet. There are some delightful surprises as well ... as when “A Needle In Your Eye #16” hits the four minute mark and you’re suddenly aware that the same two chords have been played over and over for the entire song, yet the raptured intoxication is so uplifting that it’s impossible not to smile and shake one’s head with befuddlement and dive back in for more.