THE BUILDING

Petra

CONCORD 8/10

Nine hymnal, life-affirming meditations from Anthony Lamarca of The War On Drugs

Here War On Drugs guitarist Anthony Lamarca plays nine songs in just one register – each song a soft tangle of gently picked acoustic guitars, brushed drums, Ebowed electric lead guitars and hushed vocals in a major key, pitched somewhere between Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden and Bon Iver’s first album. However, the unity of mood and the yearning lyrics of affirmation make sense when you learn the album was recorded while Lamarca was engaged in treatment for bone-marrow cancer; yet even without the dramatic backstory, heart-tugging earworms like “All Things New” and “Purifier” work on their own terms as healing meditations.