Keeping up with this has been more difficult than I thought, but I'm making an attempt to keep this going. I'll be the first to say that The Drums 2010 self titled is one of the best albums of 2010, and one of my favorites from the past decade. That being said, Portamento has a lot to live up to.
I didn't even expect this album to come out, personally I hadn't heard anything about it and when I saw it pop up I was ecstatic and had very high hopes. When the first song, Book of Revelations, comes on, I felt that I was really struck by one thing. That is that they sound more mature. Jonathan Pierces very identifiable vocals from the first album seem more honest, they seem less forced into the realm of croon, and his similarities to artists like Morrisey has settled into a distinct style, where Pierce seems much more comfortable. The poppy minimal guitar still permeates most tracks on the album, and the thumping kick and the compressed snare with that 80's compression to it returns again as well. Stylistically the album shares a lot of similarities with last years self titled, yet it feels more natural and comfortable, which is excellent progress to have been made for a sophomore effort.
The second track, Days, which is my personal favorite is a simple melodic tune that highlights a feeling of wasted time in a relationship. It's blunt in it's imagery, after all the opening verse is, "I worked so hard / and I killed myself". It's a great simple tune that is a blast to listen to, and I certainly swivel back and forth in my chair when it comes on.
The flow of guitar and melody driven songs is interrupted in the middle of the album with the song Hard To Love, which opens with a thick funky synth melody, which is augmented later in the song by some treble synth. This isn't the only song driven by synthesizers, two songs later a more meditative less poppy synth is used for the melody in Searching for Heaven. From this point in the album it seems to get a little darker, this is mostly evident in the song If He Likes It Let Him Do it. It's nice to see the potential monotony of pop hits be supplemented with songs that feel more dark and emotional.
The flow of the album reminds me of how I feel about the creative direction or Pierces lyrics. He seems internally divided, in songs like Days and Hard To Love, It's as if he is disappointed in the relationships that he is using as the subject of his writing. Yet in a lot of other songs he seems to be attempting to sweep a certain someone off their feet, as in the single, Money, which he belts, "I want to buy you something / But I don't have any money". The same theme appears in another song, Please Don't Leave, which I'm sure due to the title is self explanatory. This dichotomy of feelings that Pierce displays I think is also reflected in the nature of the songs. Meaning that the more poppy positive songs are also met with the darker ones, though the subject matter may not match the positive or negative aura of the song.
Did it live up to the self titled? I'm certainly not disappointed. It's not necessarily better or worse, It's just different, but not enough to really alienate the people that loved their first EP and their self titled. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more from these guys, and I really believe that they are some of the most talented and unique musicians on the scene right now. Best of luck to all of them.
The Drums "Days" from Mikol Vega on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment