The Drums have fallen victim to a vicious hype cycle I don’t quite understand. On the strength of last year’s Summertime! EP, they captivated the attention of music bloggers worldwide, receiving a best new music nod from Pitchfork for “I Felt Stupid”; and now, a year later, silence. Sure their full length debut, was met with mostly positive reviews. The blogs that did the hyping couldn’t just hang it out to dry, but brewing somewhere under the surface is resistance. Maybe it’s a pretentious desire for constant progress, maybe it’s a lack of interest in a sound that has admittedly been done before, but the cycle seems to have spit The Drums out, and this is entirely undeserved.

This album, their self-titled debut, is full of catchy, enjoyable songs and that’s all that really matters. Right? Call it a derivative, new wave rip-off if you want, but songs like “It Will All End In Tears” are undeniable. That chorus, with singer Jonathan Pierce crooning like Morrissey (were Morrissey given a Prozac or two) has to be one of the greatest moments musical moments of 2010. Try not to sing along, just try. It’s stuff that would’ve fit in well on the Factory Records roster, but that’s certainly a positive not a negative. I don’t think a band has to reinvent the wheel to make a good record.

The Drums themselves have shunned the surf revival tag that’s been thrown on them, but it fits to some degree. This stuff is certainly happier than any of the post-punk stuff that happened the first time around, and for gosh sakes they have a song called “Let’s Go Surfing”. Tongue in cheek as it may be, it still lends that beachy aesthetic that Best Coast, Surfer Blood, and Wavves share (albeit a slightly more 80s focused, less punk oriented version of this aesthetic). The band does have Florida roots after all.

So, the ultimate question in this information age—a time when tens of thousands of bands vie for our musical attention—are the Drums worth your time? Certainly. If you are a fan of new wavey music, or catchy music in general, you owe it to yourself to check this out. While it’s not as much the masterpiece debut album that kindred spirits Surfer Blood delivered in January of this year,(see review here) it certainly shows a lot of promise for an extremely young band.