Artist: Drenge
Release: Drenge
Release Date: Out Now
“What’s that bloody racket?”
“Oh that’s Mrs Loveless’s boys, they’re in a rock n roll band y’know. Drenge they’ve named ’emselves”
“Drenge ain’t no kinder name I ever heard of!”
This, I’m sure, is the kind of reception brothers Rory and Eoin Loveless became only too used to receiving from the folk of Castleton – the quaint village up north where they grew up. As both their band-name and surnames would suggest, Drenge isn’t a sugar-sweet collection of melodies encapsulating the rural beauty of the British countryside. Rather, this album is a rusty dagger through the heart of Castleton; personifying small-town frustration through Eoin’s exhilarating punk-roar and thrashing guitar-play paired with Rory’s furious drumming; each beat feeling like just another problem off his chest.
Drenge have followed the archetypal line-up of garage-blues bands, an archetype set by The White Stripes of working in a pair. An odd twist in the Drenge tale would be if they followed in The White Stripes’ footsteps further and it came to light that Rory and Eoin were in fact lovers not brothers! But no, seriously, duos with this kind of rock/bluesy style seem to be a winning formula, The Black Keys and The Kills also putting it to great effect.
Two raised fingers are flung out of the speakers from the off with Drenge’s scathing opener ‘People In Love Make Me Feel Yuck’, a snarling attack which whilst comically petty provides a real explosion of anger. The excitingly shocking impact of the first track is carried on by the brothers – heavy guitar riffs and tourette’s-like drumming providing a quick, dangerous tempo. Eoin’s dark, anthemic guitar-play in their debut single ‘Bloodsports’ is stimulating, as are the next three tracks which include their other single ‘Face Like A Skull’. We then reach the brilliantly cynical ‘I Don’t Want To Make Love To You,’ Eoin hurling a Cobain-like growl which is scintillating to the ear.
As we reach the final three tracks of the album, things change. We aren’t hearing that full-fledged, raging energy. Rather, Drenge show the exhaustion that characteristically follows such an argument, seemingly asking for forgiveness from the girl Eoin so relentlessly condemned for the first nine tracks. Within this tender closing trio is the 8-minute-long ‘Let’s Pretend,’ which shows Eoin’s vocals in a different light, portraying the delicate side of a person with genuine emotion. The song which follows, ‘Fuckabout,’ is the album’s highlight. It shows both sides to Eoin’s lyricism, using his recognisably vulgar tone to create a brilliant chorus: “When words get stuck in your throat, and all you wanna do is choke on the lies that you’ve been fed.” The song then finishes with the line “I don’t give a fuck about people in love, they don’t piss me off, they just make me give up,” again showing the temperamental, contradictory attitude of the album; going back on the opening track’s statement that people in love make him feel yuck.
All in all, Drenge’s debut album is an absolute gem. Without doubt one of the year’s standout LP’s from a British band.
8/10
Reviewer: Bart Williams
