The War on Drugs’ new album will be called A Deeper Understanding; listen to “Holding On”

After teasing us on Record Store Day with the 11-minute stunner “Thinking of a Place,” Philly space rock heroes The War on Drugs are back with another new song — a very poppy one, this time — and details on the new record, their first since 2014’s Lost in the Dream.

The album will be called A Deeper Understanding and it comes out on August 25th via Atlantic Records. That’s the album cover above (with its very White Light / White Heat lettering scheme) and the new song “Holding On” is below.

It’s a classic move from the Adam Granduciel playbook — a shimmering synthesizer pulse, slide guitar moans, counterpoint licks, accents of glockenspiel, lyrics about highways, all building to a rousing refrain. While “Thinking of a Place” was TWoD really stretching out with their sonic vision, “Hold On” is the band returning to their core and giving us the most refined reminder to date of why we collectively dig them so much.

Listen below, check out the track list and see The War on Drugs on Thursday, September 21st, at Connor Barwin’s Make The World Better benefit gig at The Dell Music Center. Tickets and more information on the show can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.

A Deeper Understanding:

01 Up All Night
02 Pain
03 Holding On
04 Strangest Thing
05 Knocked Down
06 Nothing to Find
07 Thinking of a Place
08 In Chains
09 Clean Living
10 You Don’t Have to Go