The War on Drugs share two new songs
Today, American indie rockers The War on Drugs have dropped the deluxe edition of their wonderful 2021 LP I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Included on the new release are two new tracks from the album’s sessions, ‘Oceans of Darkness’ and ‘Slow Ghost’.
If you happen to recognise ‘Oceans of Darkness’, you might be an observant viewer of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. No, seriously: when The War on Drugs appeared on Fallon back in 2020, they played the track. If you saw them on their most recent tour, you might have heard the song as well since a smattering of concerts featured the track throughout 2022.
“One night in LA, while we were many months into working on what would be I Don’t Live Here Anymore, Dave [Hartley] uncovered a stripped-down demo in my dropbox called ‘Oceans of Darkness,’ and insisted we try recording it,” Granduciel explains in a press release. “We were frustrated and exhausted at the time, but we set up in a circle after dinner and worked it out as the tape was rolling.”
“It’s rare that a song of ours could feel this complete after only a few takes, but it had all the desperation and urgency that we had been looking for,” he continues. “Ultimately, I didn’t include it on the record because I couldn’t find a home for it among the other songs, but we’re happy we can share it with you now.”
While ‘Oceans of Darkness’ has been hanging in the air for a while, ‘Slow Ghost’ is a bit more of a surprise. The song has only been played live ten times over the course of a year and hasn’t been featured on any TV appearances or Tiny Desk Concerts. If you’re an obsessive fan of the band, that’s probably the only way you’ve heard ‘Slow Ghost’, but now it’s available for all to hear.
Honestly, I’m not sure why either ‘Oceans of Darkness’ or ‘Slow Ghost’ were kept off the final tracklist of I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Both fit the overall sound of the album, both are very solid tracks, and their additions still keep the album’s runtime under an hour. Maybe Granduciel felt that their inclusion hurt the overall impact of the LP, but I’ll stand here and disagree with that (hypothetical) notion. These are great War on Drugs songs, and hopefully, they continue to float around the band’s setlists for years to come.
Check out ‘Oceans of Darkness’ and ‘Slow Ghost’ down below.
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