Drenge - Drenge
Despite Drenge being labelled a Blues Rock duo, which immediately puts them in competition with The White Stripes and The Black Keys, their sound has a more aggressive sound, it’s a sound with more Punk in it, with more anger. Just look at the songs titles, “People In Love Make Me Feel Yuck” and “I Wanna Break You In Half”.
These two brothers create, at times, a thick and heavy sound that remains rocky and catchy but doesn’t wallow into pop rock. “Bloodsports” is the albums first real standout track which is fast and alongside “Backwaters” really showcases the sound of Drenge. It is a sound that is very drum heavy, it thumps with power, it doesn’t dwell, it isn’t static, just look at the second half of “Gun Crazy”, a song that starts off with a small blues feel that turns into a full assault that sounds alike to a stripped back Queens of the Stone Age.
The album does lack a certain originality though, but I can’t see them taking much from The Black Keys or The White Stripes as the drumming is much different and the guitar is heavier, more chord driven but not in a typical blues way like Deap Vally on Sistrionix. “Face Like a Skull” is a song you’ve heard before and so is “I Don’t Want To Make Love To You” which is probably out of all the songs, the one that sound the most like Blues Garage Rock, and mainly down to the guitar tone.
What is interesting though, is that the boys experiment a little. “Let’s Pretend” is an 8 minute long track, one that isn’t epic or really that grand, but more of a ballad of sorts. It moves on slowly, and then towards the end tries to rock it out, and I’m sure it’d be a great song to see live, but I can only commend them valiantly in their attempt; it makes me wonder what they can do in the future.
The album finishes of with a gritty sounding cross between Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand, and overall the album is strong and promising, a real punch in the face at times, but at others it’ll struggle in originality and cliches. I look forward to what Drenge can do in the future as I think they are only starting to find their sound.