Kevin Drew, founder member of Broken Social Scene finally releases a proper solo album. This is likely to excite a lot of people. Well, some, at least. The downbeat, downtempo atmospheric electro ‘Mexican Aftershow Party’ makes for an interesting and unexpected shift from the chirpy acoustic indie strummings, with hints of Gary Numan and Bryan Ferry. ‘You Gotta Feel It’ continues the electronic thread, a dreamy chillwave number with a piston-pumping drumbeat. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, but as the title and refrain suggests, you gotta feel it, and I’m not sure I do – or that Kevin Drew does, either.
There are some appealing moments where Drew does seem to invest a degree of emotional connection and pushes to bring the melody to the fore – ironically, ‘Bullshit Ballad’, which reminds me very much of Don Henley’s ‘Boys of Summer’ is actually one of the album’s stronger and more convincing tracks.
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There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with ‘Darlings’, and its pleasing in that Drew clearly doesn’t take himself entirely seriously, but as an album it does seem to be rather lacking in focus, and for the large part feels a bit lackadaisical. Blah.
Kevin Drew Online
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