Album Review: The Drums - The Drums
- Written by Antonio Tzikas
Just how do you make the perfect indie pop album? First you start by adding a heaped tablespoon of Smiths-esque melancholy jangle to a mixture of classic American Spector/Brill Building style songwriting and breezy upbeat surf pop riffs, add two teaspoons of reverb for atmosphere and stir. Remember not to overdo any of the ingredients, keep it stripped down to only the bare essentials necessary to carry the melody or it won't cook. When nicely baked, cut into three minute slices, sprinkle with string synths, backing ‘oooohs’ and handclaps and serve. If it comes out too sickly sweet add a tad more forlorn lovesickness into the lyrics to strike the right balance. Top tip: If people think it's still too poppy, why not try referencing obscure indie bands of the 1980s and 1990s so that they know it's authentic?
If you follow that recipe, you should, on the first or second try, come out with some indie pop magic, although it does take that extra ingredient called good songwriting to get it perfect - unfortunately this is quite rare and not easily come by. Luckily The Drums have it in abundance, which is why their album has come out on top of the pile of indie pop releases from both sides of the Atlantic this year.
The Drums have taken a marked step away from their hugely popular Summertime EP on this debut full length. Although the upbeat 'Lets Go Surfing' does feature on the album, the sound is a lot less sunny and breezy - almost as if the summer has gently faded into early November, the nights are drawing in and the surfboard is in the garage until next year. There is a clear mix of the brightness of early '60s American doo-wop and surf-pop and the moodiness and glum yearning of '80s British indie, and it works.
Lead single 'Best Friend' is a great example of The Drums formula, the beautifully and seemingly meticulously crafted backing track consisting of only the simplest of basslines and drumbeats manages to be unbelievably catchy, while the lyrics deal with the dark subject of a best friend dying, seemingly from a drug overdose. The boppy, jangly music and sing-along backing 'ooh aahs' completely take your mind off the subject matter and urge you to dance around in the same embarrassingly awkward and manic style as singer Jonathan Pierce.
The same can be said for almost every track on this album - hooks galore with not an unnecessary drum being hit or note being played throughout, it's the simplicity that makes the album what it is; everything is just so simple that it's frustrating to hear such good songs come out of such childlike and basic riffs. Any other musician would think, “No, I can't just play this can I? People will think I'm shit”, and there lies the beauty of The Drums. The riffs have all the effect of a Marr riff only with a fraction of the notes being played or a Hooky bassline but with none of the aggression, and the drummer keeps it pots and pans simple throughout.
'Skippin Town' is the best example of that Spector/Brill sound in its purest form on the album, especially in the opening few bars - it is one of the best new tunes on show here. 'Down by the Water' shows the band in their most solemn mood with Pierce’s forlorn wailing of “If they stop loving you/I won't stop loving you/if they stop needing you/ I won't stop needing you my dear” accompanied by sparse, reverb-drenched drums and plodding brass. There a few tracks toward the end such as 'I Need Fun In My Life' and 'I'll Never Drop My Sword' that don't hold up the standard of the rest of the record and could do with being scrapped to make for a perfect, 10 song album. Ending track 'The Future' could be straight out of a Morrissey tribute to Pet Sounds, and latest single 'Forever And Ever Amen' won't leave my head despite my hardest efforts to resist it's saccharine charms and retain some musical credibility by finding it incredibly infantile - as it stands I've listened to it around 20 times in the past two days.
The overall sound of the album is very polished and plastic and sounds wholly synthetic, perfect for chart success but not for credibility. This is the perfect indie pop album minus the pretensions and a cracking debut for any band. The Drums are going to be huge this year and if they can pull off a second album with songs as strong as these then we might finally see that return to the golden age of guitar pop they so obviously yearn for. The new Strokes?