The Drums - Summertime EP

Label: Moshi Moshi Records Release date: 11/10/09 Website: http://www.myspace.com/thedrumsforever Repetitive and irritating, or the catchiest thing you’ve ever heard? It’s a tough choice that I’m still making for myself, but The Drums’ Summertime! EP is relentlessly fun and frantic to the point that it’s all a little juvenile, stuffed with whistling, handclaps, simple drum beats, bass parts that sound like they’re made by a children’s toy and songs about surfing and stuff. You’d have to have a heart made of stone, or have no patience with forced-kooky post-punk influenced indie pop, to not warm to at least one moment on Summertime!, whether it’s the soft female vocals that come in to duet on ‘Don’t Be A Jerk, Johnny’, or the fingerclicking breakdown that accompanies it, the Young Folks-up-to-11 intro of ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, or the awesomely cheesy synth stabs on opener ‘Saddest Summer’. Then there’s the airy fuzz of closer ‘Down By The Water’, the one place where the EP finally slows down. Otherwise, things are non-stop stupidly danceable. I dare you not to like it. Rating: 7/10