Portamento
New Yorkers offer a fresh take on an '80s recipe.
Dioni Vougioukli, 01 Sep 2011
To make you own Drums at home, mix one ounce of Morrissey’s lyricism with one litre of Robert Smith vocals, add a handful of Johnny Marr guitar riffs, a cup of random ‘80s synths and a pinch of Beach Boys surf-pop, stir it well, leave to stand for 30 years and finally bake it under the New York sun. There you have it! And quite honestly, the resulting concoction is delicious.
On their second album, however, someone in the kitchen seems to have sprinkled a double Robert Smith dosage into parts of the mix. The effect is that, at times, singer Jonathan Pierce sounds like a cat in heat. Fear not, however: there is far too much that’s good, about Portamento – the name is a reference to the journey from one note to the next – to dismiss it just because of a few miaows.
The Drums’ influences are still worn on their sleeves, but this time out there is no risk of mistaking them for an actual ‘80s band, as one might have done on a blind tasting of their debut. They are now all modernised and polished – indeed there are moments when they even sound a tiny bit cool, like their homeboys, The Strokes.
The Smiths’ influence is still prevalent in both their music and their lyrics. It’s not like the Mozfather will be banging his head against the wall for not coming up with “I want to buy you something but I don’t have any money”, but the lyrics of ‘Money’ could have made a wonderful extra verse for ‘This Charming Man’. Nor is the influence of The Cure confined to the vocals: on more than one track, the synths and the beats are reminiscent of Robert Smith’s gang’s wonderful ‘Close To Me’. But to focus too heavily on their forebears is to do The Drums a disservice. They are more than capable of cooking up their own storm. ‘Book Of Revelations’ and ‘If He Likes It Let Him Do It’ sound at once familiar yet all fresh and unique. As for ‘Days’, it’s an absolute heartbreaker.
In other words, it’s when The Drums take all their influences and meld them into something completely new that magic happens.
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