''A Deeper Understanding'' is the fourth studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

band The War on Drugs. It was released on August 25, 2017, through

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most im ...

. The album was mixed by engineer Shawn Everett. The album won

Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sev ...

at the

60th Annual Grammy Awards The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeong ...

Reception

''A Deeper Understanding'' received acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 81, based on 33 reviews, indicating universal acclaim. According to Marcy Donelson of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

, ''A Deeper Understanding'' "reclaims and explores the distinctive soundscapes, vastness, and haunted psyche of '' Lost in the Dream'', and that in itself is significant." On the same site, in a readers' poll by users it was ranked as the #1 album of 2017. Mark Richardson of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' noted similarities with mid-'80s rock, stating it is "also a fascinating study in influence; it’s hard to think of a band with more obvious touchstones that also sounds so original." Michael Bonner of ''

Uncut Magazine ''Uncut'' is a monthly magazine based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections. A DVD magazine under the ''Uncut'' brand was published quarterly from 2005 to 2006 ...

'' described it as "some of the richest, most compelling and least lonely-sounding music of Granduciel’s career". In a less enthusiastic review for ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yo ...

'', Josh Goller noted "the album's lyrics, however, can’t match this same level of musical precision, and Granduciel too often repeats the same vague sentiments using threadbare imagery." The album's title was influenced by

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...

's song with the same name. It was nominated for International Album of the Year at the 2018 UK Americana Awards. At the

, ''A Deeper Understanding'' won the

Grammy Award for Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sever ...

Accolades

Track listing

All words by Adam Granduciel. All music by Granduciel, except where noted.

Personnel

The War on Drugs * Robbie Bennett – Prophet 12 ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celest ...

, backing vocals ,

Hammond Organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, Baldwin Organ * Adam Granduciel – vocals ,

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, also referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Its high-quality samples, flexibility and affordability made the LinnDrum popular; it sold far m ...

, samplers , Yamaha CS-5 , piano ,

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...

, Hammond Organ , E70 Organ , Nashville guitars ,

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, lead electric guitars , vibes , celeste , Juno 106 ,

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, Korg Trident ,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

, percussion , Arp Solina , Prophet 5 , PolyKorg , drums ,

Vox Jaguar The Vox Continental is a transistorised combo organ that was manufactured between 1962 and 1971 by the British musical equipment manufacturer Vox. It was designed for touring musicians and as an alternative to the heavy Hammond organ. It supp ...

Roland Juno-60 The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally contr ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

tape loops Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive * Athletic tape, pressure-sensiti ...

, Vox Organ * Charlie Hall – drums , percussion , backing vocals , electric guitar , vibes * Dave Hartley – bass guitar , glockenspiel , acoustic guitar , backing vocals ,

fretless bass A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them befo ...

Höfner Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German (originally Austro-Bohemian) manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments, such as violins, violas, cel ...

bass * Anthony LaMarca – electric guitar , slide guitar , backing vocals , drums , acoustic guitar * Jon Natchez – baritone saxophone Additional musicians * Patrick Berkery – drums , percussion * Michael Bloch – electric rhythm guitar , electric guitar * Meg Duffy – slide guitar * Max Hart – Prophet 6 , Oberheim Expander ,

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

* Otto Hauser – drums, percussion * Darren Jesse – drums, percussion * Michael Johnson – Arp Odyssey * Josh Kauffman – amplified voice , electric guitar * Parker Kindred – percussion * Sterling Laws – drums, percussion *

Lucius Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from '' Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames ('' praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from ...

( Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig) – backing vocals * Carter Tanton – acoustic guitar * The Dove & The Wolf (Louise Hayat & Paloma Gil) – backing vocals Technical * Adam Granduciel – production, recording * Shawn Everett – recording, mixing * Nick Krill, Daniel Schlett, Nicolas Vernhes, Gabe Cox Wax and Jeff Zeigler – additional recording *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering at Sterling Sound Studios Artwork and design * Adam Granduciel – art direction * Rob Carmichael – art direction, design * Shawn Brackbill – center booklet photograph * Dusdin Condren – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deeper Understanding 2017 albums The War on Drugs (band) albums Albums produced by Adam Granduciel Atlantic Records albums Grammy Award for Best Rock Album Albums recorded at Electro-Vox Recording Studios