The Drums - Portamento

(Island)

On this, their second album, The Drums have made no effort to grow out of summery guitar riffs and meaningless lyrics full of innocent joy. In fact, these 12 sprightly indie-pop tracks are so similar, and so slight, that Portamento could be seen as just an exercise in surf nostalgia; like staring at other peoples’ Polaroids of their beach holidays.

But who says that a serious, proper band can’t write songs as light as clouds? Singer Jonathan Pierce shows off his debt to Morrissey, stealing the lilt of some of Moz’s laziest, but most brilliant melodies, as well as The Smiths-esque themes of death, money and sex to create the thinking hipster’s party album of the (rapidly evaporating) summer.