The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing
Mixing influences is never an easy thing, and they don’t come much more disparate than 50s surf rock and the post-punk sound of Factory Records. But Brooklyn’s The Drums have tried, and succeeded, in the best possible way - 'Let’s Go Surfing' is the perfect distillation of the two styles and comes out sounding like something completely new.
With the hollow production reminiscent of Martin Hannett and the driving Joy Division bass melody they’ve got the Factory tone wrapped up, and placed on top of that are tinny guitar strums, the catchiest whistling since 'Young Folks' and lyrics about, well, surfing that shore up surf-rock’s end of the bargain. It’s an odd beast, but the end result is a song so packed full of hooks and summery bliss it’s impossible not to fall in love.
It really is a shame that it wasn’t released a few months earlier, when the sun was still (occasionally) out. Then again, maybe it’s the perfect time, there’s so much sunshine packed up in this song that it even jumping into the North Sea would feel like the Caribbean. This is the perfect summer song, and a perfect introduction to a great new band: joyful, intriguing and irrepressibly memorable.
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