The Drums / Portamento

The Drums
Portamento
(Moshi Moshi)
* *

The Drums exploded onto the scene with their self-titled debut just over a year ago, and they’re back already with a second full-length album. Their single, ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, was one of the highlights of my summer playlist 12 months ago, but I was disappointed by the album as a whole, as it seemed to lack variety and depth in places.

Unfortunately, ‘more of the same’ is probably how best to describe ‘Portamento’. There have been a few line-up changes since last time, and there is now the addition of a synthesizer that does add a little texture to the otherwise featureless landscape, most notably on ‘Hard To Love’ and ‘Searching For Heaven’, the latter demonstrating an entirely different (a very welcome) side to their music .

Otherwise though, it’s The Drums by numbers with driving bass and sun-soaked guitars being the standard order of play. Singer Johnny Pierce has stated that the lyrics have a more personal nature for him this time – but that’s difficult to appreciate when each song is so startlingly similar to the last.