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Album Review: 'Abysmal Thoughts' by The Drums
American band The Drums returns with its fourth record “Abysmal Thoughts,” a solid collection of its trademark wistful surf-infused indie rock.
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‘Abysmal Thoughts’ by The Drums (The Drums/File)
A
merican band The Drums returns with its fourth record “Abysmal Thoughts,”a solid collection of its trademark wistful surf-infused indie rock.
As always, trebly single note guitar lines and throwback synth lines wrap themselves around upbeat drumming and front man Jonathan Pierce’s longing melodies. It may not be any giant step from the band’s usual sound, but left turns don’t feel necessary when the formula still feels this earnest and true.
Essentially now a Pierce solo project (he played everything on this record), each of The Drums’ four records has seen them shed a member or two, culminating with loss of fellow key member Jacob Graham this year.
Graham’s absence certainly had fans worried, since the preceding records relied plenty on musicality and arrangements. But Pierce manages to pretty much fill up the role of a functioning band.
“Abysmal Thoughts” doesn’t sound too much like a studio project, lacking only a variety in pace and mood — which, to be fair, was never The Drums’ thing anyway. The songs here are similar, but their homogeneity comes more in the form of instrumental choices — the aforementioned surf-music-styled single guitar lines and simple synth blips — and vocal stylings as in reverb-drenched voices hopping over each other in that eager, childlike delivery.
It matters little that the few opening tracks, especially openers “Mirror” and “Blood Under My Belt” may burst through with similar presentation but individually, each offer up very differing lyrical perspectives as well as incredibly catchy verses and refrains. So does the jumpy “Under the Ice,” pensively percussive “Your Tenderness” (perhaps the most post-punk The Drums has gotten) and garage “Rich Kids.”
Underneath those recognizable aesthetics, The Drums’ consistency comes from the push-and-pull between the melancholic resiliency embedded in its melodic sensibilities and the sometimes outright-sadness of the lyrics.
Much has been made regarding Pierce and Graham’s background as gay men, with the former having come from an ultra-religious and “abusive” household and having recently split from his husband. And there is no denying that that lurking feeling of soul-searching, longing and questioning made for a strong first impression on the band’s early album, especially when delivered atop these catchy surf-rockers.
“Abysmal Thoughts” is as believable as before because those same sets of sentiments still drive the tracks. It is always a challenge to separate discussions on the quality of a record’s musicality and the narrative that drives and sometimes overshadows it. But The Drums’ story of religious and sexual soul searching is the music.
It comes through in the contrasting ways mentioned above but above all, it’s consistently there. Practically every melodic turns and the rough-yet-precise arrangements ascribe to the same kinds of emotions. A lot of artists hold and express much of their traumas through their music, but Pierce and Graham seemed to have practically built their entire band around it.
That longing and heartbreak is all over the record. On “Mirror,” Pierce proclaims “I’m not the human that I could have been/ Instead I gave my heart to a breathing machine/ Where there’s no heartbeat and I’m freezing,” and questioning himself directly, “I look in the mirror when the sun goes down/I ask myself who are you now.”
“Heart Basel” finds him no less at ease, singing “Please call me and tell me that you want me/ ‘Cause right now my life is getting pretty ugly/ And I wanna share a cigarette and I wanna go dancing in the rain.” The title track is at its most direct, with Pierce purging himself — “Oh abysmal thoughts pushing me down to the ground/ Oh abysmal thoughts, please/ Take me away from this dark place/ All I wanted to do was love you” with multi-vocals that hauntingly fall over each other non-stop, ramming up the drama.
“Abysmal Thoughts” is a confidently emotional ride that probably won’t reach anyone beyond its creator’s usual fan-base; its presentation too particular and of itself. But that doesn’t mean much; this is an affecting record that also happens to have more than a few catchy-as-hell indie surf songs.
