The Drums - PORTAMENTO - Album Review! {⋆}
★★★★
The album itself is filled with a lot more memorable hooks and choruses, especially 'Money', one of the first singles released from the album. And what a good decision it was! Although the rest of the album becomes dreary and repetitive, 'Money' stands out from the crowd. It's great guitar and bass melody re-enforce the Morrissey-like vocals of frontman Jonathan Pierce. Another great breakthrough song from the album is 'I Need a Doctor'. The great uplifting, bouncy melody and lyrics give a great sense of a decent into madness and simply re-enforces once again the meaning of the whole song.
However, The Drums' major downfall on this album was the lack of
meaning in lyrics. Lyrics such as 'You hit me yesterday, and you made me
cry', lack poetic structure and underlying meaning that all the great
songs have. Yes, this is part of the attraction to the
band, but if they want to gain a wider audience, better lyrics are the
way to go. Come to think of it, most of the songs on this album are
filled with extended oohs and aahs as opposed to actual lyrics.
Overall, this album is a very good album, but when listening to it, I
feel as if there is a void that can only be filled with the joyous
merriment of the band's previous album. This, and various other reasons
provided, is why I have awarded it 4/5 stars. If you are new to the world of The Drums, I would highly recommend
listening to their first album,The Drums, and then move on to Portamento once you have become used to their style
Music Bloggery Recommends: The songs I recommend from the album are 'Days', 'Money', 'Hard To Love', 'I Need a Doctor' and 'How It Ended'.
Its not as good as the first album which was brilliant. The best track on Portamento is the last one How It Ended, fab harmonies and great simple lyrics.
ReplyDeleteApparently Portamento is meant to be their anti religion album (hence spooky crucifix cover) but i agree often the lyrics are so simplistic faux naieve, that could be about anything (or nothing). But sometimes that simplicity works really well (How it ended) or on first album Book of Stories (my fave Drums song) but sometimes it just sounds dumb (like on Money)
If you like The Drums try Orange Juice (the best band in the world!!!)
C McG