The Drums
The Drums The Drums (Island)
Music industry conflabs such as the Winter Music Conference, South by Southwest and CMJ are responsible for one of the less unedifying developments in rock: the buzz band.
Seemingly picked according to record company hype and a music media that slavishly dances to their tune, rarely do these bands prove to be more than fads. Listening to this hastily released debut, The Drums are likely to go the same way as Suckers, Fanfarlo and Duchess Says. (Who? My point exactly.)
At the risk of sounding like my dad, every song on this album sounds the same: the same swinging twang-bass, the same el-cheapo synth bob and the same twee drum-machine loop.
Saving them from a one-star rating are their lyrics. My Best Friend focuses on a friend's death, and Let's Go Surfing is a cleverly constructed allegory for having sex.
The band's previous EPs were pretty good - some of those tracks feature on this CD - because they were short, infectious and quite jolly. But the novelty is lost when you have to put up with 11 upbeat tracks of sub-80s synth pop.
Listen to Let's Go Surfing because it sounds a little less like Fleetwood Mac than the rest. That should tell you how the album sounds.
