Three years after the release of their third record, The Drums long-awaited fourth album Abysmal Thoughts is out today 

BUY ABYSMAL THOUGHTS HERE.

 

Across a year and three months of home recording between Los Angeles and his cabin in upstate New York—with the same guitar, synthesiser, drum machine and reverb unit he’s played since the beginning of The Drums—Pierce put together Abysmal Thoughts. With help from engineer Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Mannequin Pussy and more), the result is an unflinching autobiography with Pierce back in full control of the band. He’s back to not just writing all the songs by himself but playing every instrument, too, this time realising exactly his own personal vision for the band. Not coincidentally, it’s some of the most revelatory work he’s ever done. It is a vivid self-portrait, alive with the hyperdramatic emotional potency of the Smiths, the arch literary pop moves of New Zealanders like the Verlaines and the Clean, and the riotous clatter-punk power of the UK DIY bands of 1979.

With The Drums’ new record, band founder Jonny Pierce is making the exact album he’s always held in his heart. Of course, this is The Drums, so that heart is broken—but there’s beauty and even bliss in this kind of heartbreak. “I said I wanted to let life happen?” he says. “Well, the universe listened and life began to fuck me real good! But honestly, I make the worst art when I’m comfortable. The stuff that resonates with me the longest—and that resonates with others—is always the stuff that comes out of my misery.”