I’ve never been to Castleton before. From the pretty
pictures I’ve seen, the Derbyshire village seems like a rather quaint place to
live, the kind of place where Morris dancing is still celebrated, the kind of
place Enid Blyton might have set one of her novels.
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| Castleton |
It certainly doesn’t seem like the kind of a place a band like Drenge would come from. Made up of two brothers who go by the name of Eoin and Rory Loveless,
the group first made heat when they dropped their debut album in 2013, a raw
and angsty guitar record containing romantic track titles such as ‘People in love
make me yuck’ and ‘I want to break you in half’. The I-hate-the-world attitude
and rough production made Drenge charmingly uncharming. They had a rock and
roll spirit to them that too many of today’s rock bands lack.
Two years later, we now have this new record Undertow. It isn’t quite as raw or
angsty – which turns out to be both a blessing and curse. The sound is now
bigger thanks to the addition of a bassist. As someone who likes rawness and
eats their steak with a pulse, I’m not overly happy to see the duo trading in
their intimate pub sound for stadium production. However, a greater focus on
atmosphere has come as a result with reverb-heavy tracks like the ‘Introduction’
and following track ‘Running Wild’ perfectly capturing the spooky, nightly vibe
of the album cover. The riffs are also still meaty, despite not as rough around
the edges, and the drumming is still primal as showcased on tracks like ‘Never
Awake’.
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| Drenge |
Lyrically, the band have decided to ditch their teenage
moodiness for a more grown-up maturity, which is a bit disappointing as it
means no funny track titles. However, the rebelliousness is still present in
songs like ‘We Can Do What We Want’. The songwriting seems to have also got
better – ‘Standing in the Cold’ relying on storytelling and instrumentation
that builds and matches the tone. Glumness and anger seem to still be the band’s
two favourite emotions, but instead of being blunt and cynical, the band
instead use these songs to show the root cause of their moroseness. Heartbreak
serves as a common theme, which proves these two brothers might not be as
loveless as they claim. Thankfully this heartbreak comes without soppiness –
which allows Drenge to still have the same rock and roll vibe that was on their
debut.
They may be adults now and they may have more money to spend
on production, but on the whole Drenge haven’t lost their charisma. In fact, as
musical progressions go, this is pretty encouraging new direction for the band.
★★★★☆
TRACK TASTER: