After a stratospheric start to their career, The Drums quickly follow up on their eponymous debut, Portamento arriving just over a year after the first. As busy as they were, it would be easy for the New Yorkers to reproduce the sounds that gained them so much positive attention last time round but instead they’ve come up with a record that’s much more adventurous and rounded than you might have expected.
Detaching themselves from the summery fun of their debut, Portamento is inherently anguished, sorrow and sadness pouring from every note. No more sunny melody/downcast lyrics contrast here (for the most part, at least) – we’re in full on crestfallen territory now. Subject matters approached include the usual minefield that is love but also Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham’s religious upbringings, album opener ‘Book Of Revelations’ clawing at their parents’ beliefs as Jonny tells us “I’ve seen the world and there’s no heaven and there’s no hell.” The frivolity of ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, this ain’t.
Portamento as a whole sees a progression, not just in the band’s willingness to open up more. Creatively, it strays further than before, sounding rawer, hollower; less polished than The Drums. The use of electronics is more noticeable than before, ‘Hard To Love’ boasting a synthesized bassline and the chorus of ‘If He Likes It Let Him Do It’ punctuated by a piercing electro shrill. ‘Searching For Heaven’ goes the furthest though, seguing in from ‘I Don’t Know How To Love’ with warped melodies that are so out of the blue it takes a few listens to get your head around, and even then it’s hard to decide if this is Kubrick-esque genius or sheer absurdity.
Where The Drums raced into view, skipping and jumping, demanding attention, Portamento is happy to take a back seat, more sedate in its approach but, once it’s in your head, no easier to shake off. The subdued hushes of ‘Days’ are heartstring pulling beauty at its best, whilst the minimal modus operandi on ‘In The Cold’ allows Jonny’s vocals to cut through with spine tingling precision.
An album packed with high points, from ‘Money’’s romantic ode of the struggling artist to the Bananarama-meets-The-Smiths of ‘What You Were’, it’s slightly disappointing that the quality lags towards the end. ‘If He Likes It Let Him Do It’ may possess the gloriously apt lyric “it was a happy time and now it’s winter time” (is there a better lyric that sums up the transition in moods between the two records?) but it also loses focus on the chorus, dragging down the verses with that gut wrenching knowledge of what’s just around the corner. ‘I Need A Doctor’ meanwhile isn’t bad but it’s just not good enough, shrinking in the shadows of the rest of the album.
More intrepid than its predecessor then, Portamento doesn’t quite manage to make it through without faltering a bit but has more than enough highlights for that not to matter too much. It’s not the seminal album The Drums could be capable of making but things seem to be on the right track.
Release date: 05/09/2011
[Rating: 3.5]
