The Drums \u2013 like one of their influences, The Smiths \u2013 embraces shyness and expresses the hopelessness of the introverted cool. Take the title track off this fourth release by this New York-based outfit, which starts off with the grim words, \u201cOh abysmal thoughts pushing me down to the ground.\u201d But the most memorable part of the song is when frontman Johnny Pierce, in his tender voice, repeats the word \u201cAbysmal\u201d in a passionate and celebratory way, as if he has found religion.<\/p>\n
As suggested by the title, “Abysmal Thoughts<\/i>” is full of dismal lyrics, attributed to hardships that Pierce was facing in his personal life at the time of writing the album. However, these words are very smartly wrapped up in bouncy and cheerful pop tunes. At times, there is even some dark humor, like on one of the album\u2019s best songs \u201cRich Kids,\u201d which contains the lines \u201cRich kids, you make me sick kids, a bunch of dick heads \/ Rich kid, you don\u2019t give two shits, you make me slit wrists,\u201d which sound as catchy as they are bleak. <\/p>\n
Another highlight, the noir-ish \u201cAre U Fucked,\u201d is the only sort of \u201cdark\u201d song musically. It features the chorus, \u201cI\u2019m asking are you fucked cuz I\u2019m feeling fucked,\u201d which is sung with such chilling calmness that it sounds humorously sarcastic coming from Pierce\u2019s innocuously soft voice.<\/p>\n
With its simply constructed songs, “Abysmal Thoughts”<\/i> has the musical aesthetic of post-punk bands such as New Order and The Cure from their early days, when their music still had remnants of the tail end of punk. Although this is one of The Drums\u2019 more well-produced albums, the production on it is still thin, making the music notably raw. But this does not take anything away from the disc\u2019s catchiness. In fact, the coarseness of the music counter-balances some of the album\u2019s overly sugary moments; for example, the lullaby-like music and singing on \u201cHead Of The Horse\u201d would most certainly have sounded overly saccharine had this song been more polished.<\/p>\n
Dark, touchy, funny, and temperamental, “Abysmal Thoughts”<\/i> is akin to adolescence with it complex facets, and the innocence with which these feelings are presented, all thanks to the simplistic words, music, and honestly pure vocals. This album lets you relive your teenybopper days but without having to be embarrassed by it, and this is not something that can be pulled off so easily!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8651],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45132","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-drums","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45132"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}