Work Drugs

Work Drugs craft indie pop suited to cocktails, drawing from the soft-rock period associated with Christopher Cross and Donald Fagen while adding a lo-fi edge that led them to adopt the tag “smooth-fi.” Singer and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Crystal and Benjamin Louisiana established the group in Philadelphia. In mid-2011 the duo issued their first full-length, Summer Blood, on their own imprint, then aligned with Chicago’s Bobby Cahn Records for the string of releases that followed. After “Rad Racer,” taken from that debut, appeared in an Urban Outfitters advertisement later the same summer, the band delivered Aurora Lies in November. An acoustic collection of prior material, Cayman Islands Sessions, surfaced before the year closed. Absolute Bearing and Delta both arrived in 2012; the Amore EP followed in February 2013, and Mavericks appeared that summer. Remaining with Bobby Cahn Records, the sextet released their sixth LP of original material, Insurgents, in March 2014, followed by Runaways that autumn and Cayman Islands Sessions, Vol. 2 in December. Throughout this period Work Drugs kept a steady touring schedule, frequently augmented by additional players, and opened for acts that included Two Door Cinema Club, Peter Bjorn and John, Umphrey’s McGee, and Battles. Retaining their calm, yacht-side atmosphere, the group put out Louisa in summer 2015. They tracked Method Acting that autumn, issuing it in August 2016. Preceded by the single “Giving Up the Feeling,” their tenth studio album, One Foot Off the Merry-Go Round, appeared in 2017.