Though the War on Drugs don’t really sound all that much like Bruce Springsteen, they do share the same fraught relationship with America and humanity in general. The central question of every War on Drugs song seems to be: “What does it mean to be alive?†In the video for single “Holding On,†from the band’s upcoming album A Deeper Understanding, actor Frankie Faison — who you may remember as the complicated police commissioner Ervin Burell on The Wire — copes with the loss of his wife, but ultimately finds comfort in those around him. It’s optimistic, but also sad as hell, so if you start crying at your desk, blame the entire notion of acceptance in the face of tragedy, or blame director Brett Haley, or Krysten Ritter, who came up with the concept for the whole thing.
