Drowners

New York City post-punk quartet Drowners love Suede so much that they named their group after one of their songs. They also love the Smiths, the Strokes, and the Arctic Monkeys, and they're not ashamed of sounding exactly like them. This needs to be taken into consideration when dropping the needle on the band's eponymous debut long-player, because taken at face value, it's hard to get past its thrift-shop nature, but like their brothers from across the pond, the Vaccines, with whom they have smartly toured, they lack the skill set for subterfuge. They just want to be like their heroes, and if that means treating the biz like a garage rock revival RPG game, then so be it. Punchy, infectious, and economical, songs like "Ways to Phrase a Rejection," "You've Got it All Wrong," "A Shell Across the Tongue," and "Long Hair," none of which break the two-minute mark, may sound like the products of a skinny, leather-clad, Brooklyn-based gang of twentysomethings fronted by a Welsh-born former male model (which they are), but they're also a lot of fun. ~ James Christopher Monger