Album Review: Drenge – Drenge
This grubby garage rock debut has been greatly anticipated from the Sheffield duo. Off the back of their singles ‘Backwaters’ and ‘Bloodsports’, a bizarre endorsement from a Labour MP and through profuse gigging around the country (even stopping by Glastonbury), they’ve managed to stir up a hype-storm around themselves that by now will have people itching to hear this record.
Distortion is omnipresent throughout the album, and being a two-piece they manage to steer away from ever sounding sparse or empty by cranking the fuzz tenfold. In a similar way to how Canadian duo Death From Above 1979 managed to sound colossal on their debut, they’ve got a big sound that at no point sounds like it is missing musicians.
They venture into some real nasty blues on parts of the album. ‘I Don’t Want To Make Love To You’ sounds like it could’ve fallen out of Jack White’s head circa ’99, around the time of The White Stripes’ debut album. Singer/songwriter and older sibling Eoin Loveless has a powerful and familiar voice, somewhere in between Nick Cave and Josh Homme.
Their single, ‘Bloodsports’, is the strongest on the record; it sums up the ferocious capabilities of Drenge, as well as their grasp on what can get indie and rock kids singing. ‘I Wanna Break You In Half’ is the heaviest on the record and may have been made, consciously or unconsciously, to set them apart from the soft indie Two Door Cinema Club-types that they’ll no doubt get grouped in with by untrained ears. It’s a killer punk song that is riddled with teenage torment and juvenile anger, not dissimilar to Dirty-era Sonic Youth.
The album’s very youthful and full of spunk, several songs like ‘Gun Crazy’ with its almost Motorhead style riffs, sound very geared towards their live shows. They’ve clearly got a knack for writing fast rock ‘n roll tracks, but they also manage to flip that template on its ear somewhat when they slow things down. ‘Let’s Pretend’ is a dark, weighty closer to the album, very layered and stoned, and a perfect illustration of their potential to get a little deeper with their music.
They’ve had a lot of fuss to live up to, and capturing the impact of their live shows on a record can’t have been easy. But they’ve created a fun, heavy introduction to the band, and an impressive debut. It’s by no means moving towards any ‘album of the year’ territories – it lacks a certain clout – but it’s thoroughly enjoyable and well put-together.
Serving suggestions: Try listening to the album dangerously loud with friends and beers. Make sure you have a serious sub-woofer because there’s a lot of meaty low-end on the production.
– Jak Hutchcraft
