The Drums – Portamento

Album Review by Sam Wiseman | 26 Aug 2011
Album title: Portamento
Artist: The Drums
Label: Moshi Moshi/Island
Release date: 12 Sep

Following their critically-lauded debut of last year, Brooklyn trio the Drums seek on Portamento to cement their position as the foremost practitioners of melancholy, reverb-soaked indie rock. This record maintains the atmosphere of fragility that made its predecessor so compelling: a quality seemingly heightened by the departure of guitarist Adam Kessler between records. Days, in particular, has a spectral aspect that allows the strength of the vocal melodies to be foregrounded.

Other shifts in the group’s aesthetic are evident here: guitarist Jacob Graham contributes some analogue synth, lending proceedings an air of strangeness that underpins the quiet precision of the guitar lines. Overall, however, Portamento feels less like a departure or progression, and more like a subtle variation of the sound sketched out on the Drums’ debut. As such, it’s likely to win them even more fans: few other modern outfits can create pop music so haunting and distinctive with such basic and familiar tools. [Sam Wiseman]

Playing O2 ABC, Glasgow on 3 Dec and HMV Picture House, Edinburgh on 4 Dec

http://www.thedrums.com