The Drums

As opinion splitters go, it's difficult to envisage another act causing as much of a divide in 2010 than Florida-cum-Brooklynites The Drums. While it could be argued that a lot of the hate has been born out of little more than the hype that's followed them around since last year's Summertime EP, there's also a nagging suspicion that they're in some way 'fake'.

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They might be just 18 months old (as a band - they're not toddlers, despite their babyfaces), but this self-titled debut album from The Drums has felt a long time coming. It's been a whole six months, or a third of their life, since they were shortlisted for the BBC Sound Of 2010 award but there have been just a few spectacular gigs to tease and whet our appetite since, and the only recordings to tide us over have been a couple of singles and an EP, released last September. So now it's D-Day, and all eyes, and ears, are on the New York four-piece to see if they can live up to the hype.

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As the Drums' recent appearance on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross suggests, frontman Jonathan Pierce is not a man who is concerned with looking cool. Bearing a passing resemblance to Ralph Macchio's Karate Kid nemesis William Zabka, Pierce prances and preens through a performance of recent single "Best Friend" in a series of stilted robot dance moves, sweeping game-show-host hand gestures, and bug-eyed facial expressions, while delivering the arch, Morrissey-worthy lyrics ("You were my best friend/ But then you died") in a hammy, lounge-singer baritone. But then, given Pierce's track record, it's not surprising he has a healthy appreciation for the absurd; this is a man, after all, who called his old band Goat Explosion.

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In many interviews over the last several months, the Drums’ lead singer Jonathan Pierce repeatedly stated that the band’s debut LP would consist of relatively “darker” songs and be more of a “winter album”. These statements were presented as a comparison to the band’s debut EP, Summertime! (truth in advertising if it ever existed). So, here we are… it’s summertime again, and guess what? The Drums is melancholic, but not “dark” or “wintery” in the slightest. All things considered, it’s another summer album.

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