The War on Drugs, Brixton Academy

After a summer touring the UK festival scene, and riding high on a tide of universal acclaim for their superb Lost in the Dream, released earlier this year, The War on Drugs bring their majestic, complex, Springsteen-flecked sound to Brixton in February.
While 2011's Slave Ambient became something of a cult success for the band, it is The War on Drugs' former frontman Kurt Vile who has hogged the limelight in recent years with two excellent solo albums, Smoke Ring for my Halo and last year's Waking on a Pretty Daze.
In truth, though, neither can compare to the hazy, ethereal soundscape that Adam Granduciel - the band's famously perfectionist songwriter and frontman since Vile's departure - conjures on Lost in the Dream, which comes across at every turn as a band hitting their stride in glorious fashion. Haunting refrains that bring to mind broken-dream Americana hang over intertwining guitar melodies, beautifully restrained but always pitch-perfect, and both are driven on by Motorik-esque drums that give every track a restless, driven feel.
Sounding at times like 'Dancing in the Dark', at times like 'Young Turks', Granduciel has managed to pay homage to the giants of American heartland rock that cast long shadows over his musical terrain whilst crafting a level of subtlety and depth that sounds unmistakably of our time. You won't be waving your lighter aloft to their choruses, or howling every line back at them, but at the Academy in Brixton this February, you could be watching the making of a modern classic.