Album Review: The Drums - Abysmal Thoughts

The album title says it all, really.

The Drums' leading man Jonny Pierce has yet again filled an album with forlorn tales lamenting love and loss masked in sunny surf rock ditties, and the juxtaposition proves to be a winning formula for a fourth time. There's just something about jangly guitars and a wistful vocal that strikes a chord and Abysmal Thoughts is riddled with this. Single Blood Under My Belt is classic Drums — a playful guitar line, sparse kit work, offset by lyrical dejection in "What did I say to make you run away?" — and while it's not an album of wide variety, tracks like this make it shine.