The title, Portamento, is a musical term and to work out the metaphor as best, it implies anticipation. Something we all feel for second albums. Especially the Drums second album.
I wasn't a believer, despite liking the early song "Submarine". There was something too second hand about it all. Then I saw them perform an excellent set last Halloween and was completely turned around in an instance. Jason Pierce and Jacob Graham are a completely arresting visual element on stage and it is the gayest performance I've yet seen by rock band because it is the least transgendered.
So we move to "Book Of revelations" the first song off Portamento which opens with "Let It Begins" and some 45 minutes will lead us to "This Is The End". "Book Of Revelations" is an atheists call to arm as a swinging little pop.
"How It Ended" -the best song on the album, has a bass lick that sounds like something out of Joy Division as sung by Morrissey and orchestrated by Brian Wilson circa the Beach Boys Today . It is a recherches de temp perdu, full of sorrow and loss but with a bounce at it's heart.
None of the songs inbetween are bad, they all continue the Drums excellent conglom of Surf and Manchester, they all thrill, every single of them. I love the guitar lick intro to "Call The Doctor", "Money" is a droney stomper with a chorus where Jason jumps to falsetto.
The Drums are an excellent band with their own thing and here they provide to great effect.
Grade: A-