DRINKS - "Hippo Lite"

DRINKS is the collaborative duo of Welsh singer Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley (AKA White Fence).  Cate Le Bon has been releasing music for the better part of 10 years.  Her first release, 2009's "Me Oh My" was certainly a decent Indie Folk record.  But I was much more interested in Cate's sort of mysterious side, and the seriously freaky side to Cate which showed up in tracks like "Hollow Trees House Hounds".  Cate's next work, 2012's "Cyrk" was a truly bizarre one, which certainly did see her branching out and freaking out. There were haunting and drawn out ballads like "The Man I Wanted" as well as elaborate Indie Rockers like "Fold the Cloth".  Cate's music continued to be very hard to pinpoint, but certainly enjoyable.  Cate returned in 2013 with "Mug Museum", which to an extent just seemed a little too safe for my liking.  Sure, "Wild" was freakish and hypnotic, and "I Think I Knew" was an absolutely charming duet with Perfume Genius.  But most of the rest of this album just seemed to be Cate trying way too hard to pinpoint a sound that I was already pretty sure she found. But to me, Cate returned to that sound in a BIG way on 2016's "Crab Day".  This was easily Cate's most out there and bizarre work yet.  But her quirky personality shined brilliantly on tracks like "I Was Born on the Wrong Day" and "Wonderful", making for some of Cate's most playful and fun, and sometimes hilarious recordings yet.  Now, in 2015 Care teamed up with Tim Presley of White Fence fame to form the Garage Rock duo DRINKS, and released "Hermits on Holiday".  Now, this was a big change of pace for Cate, as up until now she'd been working with a mostly Pop sound.  But her works with Tim on "Hermits on Holiday, for the most part was pleasant.  They absolutely had some chemistry almost immediately, and while this wasn't the heaviest or dirtiest Garage album of the year, I had fun.  So DRINKS are back, and um, what the hell happened?  I mean yea, these tracks have tons of character. But the performances have been seriously awkward.  Let's chat about this, shall we?

    This album starts off with “Blue From The Dark”, and it’s a very whimsical, Low-Fi intro to say the least.  It’s got all sorts of quirks and is overall very strange even for these two.  Like, at first I thought they had some serious Chemistry.  But here, this is about as awkward as a middle school slow dance.  Now, there certainly is an amateurish charm to this in a weird way.  But what the hell actually happened?  I feel like I’m missing the central theme of this in such a big way.  The instrumental ends up being more annoying than anything, and this just comes off like a surreal joke that I don’t get.  Then we have “IF IT”, and the very whimsical fantastical themes of this album roar on.  Or should I say, tiptoe on?  This is an alright interlude, but it comes off so incredibly underwhelming.  It’s sweet and all, but it sounds unfinished, and it was meant to be so much more.  Things really don’t get much better with “Real Outside”.  I’m down with some of the stripped down instrumentals and some weird ideas.  But this is literally some of the most obnoxious music I’ve heard all year.  Cate’s vocals and entire performance are actually really enjoyable.  But everything else about this track is head scratching and headache inducing.  That amateurish charm has flown the coop in a big way. And honestly, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that Tim was even a pare of this track.   Then we have “When I Was Young” and so far, the most enjoyable tracks here have been two instrumentals that go less than a minute.  And that’s not a good sign.  This is actually a very classy instrumental and all, I just wish the rest of this album followed suit.
    Now, at the very least “In The Night Kitchen” has a sort of ominous underbelly that I think is interesting.  Mostly because there just seems to be so many unsettling sound effects deep down. I’ll give this track credit, it certainly gets you in the mindset to expect anything.  But even this, a track which I have genuinely good things to say about, DRINKS still don’t put in all their effort.  This is a rather surreal tune, and I can’t help but feel like this was meant to soundtrack some twisted and hard to watch student film.  Then we have “Greasing Up”, and once again the pacing is off-kilter and really hard to place.  At the very least, Tim and Cate whip out some nice harmonies.  But everything else here continues to be so freakish.  The instrumentals are hard to place and sound almost like demos or just snippets of ideas.  Sure, “Greasing Up” may be better than some earlier tunes, but I’ve yet to get a grip on this album.  By the time “Corner Shops” pops in, I feel like we’re going around in circles.  Every time I feel like DRINKS start to come out with some interesting material, they drop a track like this which is a laugh a minute.  The instrumental is flimsy and obnoxious, and if Cate didn’t have nearly a much personality as she does this would have been even worse.  Sadly enough, Cate’s personality just isn’t enough to truly save “Corner Shops” and make this interesting.  This project has a charm to it, but on tracks like this, everything just goes to shit. These instrumentals aren’t nearly as quirky as they’re meant to be.  I’m into some experimental music and all, but this is a joke.  Then we get a reprise of “IF IT”, and at the very least these interludes continue to have some actual mystery to them.  I seriously love how unsettling this track ends up coming off, to be honest.  You know, if only DRINKS could keep this up, and come together with an interesting track longer than 2 minutes. 

    But with “Ducks” I’m right back to be genuinely confused, and not in a good way at all.  Like, I feel like this is a bunch of kids trying so hard to be weird and experimental.  Obviously, it’s not working.  It’s not even close, because all this is doing now is getting on my nerves between directionless vocal passages and amateurish and goofy instrumentals.  These two artists are just so much better than any of this. I’ve said it before this year, I respect thinking outside of the box, but this just isn’t good.  Now, at the very least “Leave The Lights On” seems to have some basic songwriting fundamentals to it.  There seems to be a little structure, but very quickly it just becomes even more laughable and completely a waste of my time.  Here, there are some genuinely good ideas deep down.  But they’re just completely overshadowed by truly goofy performances and obnoxious songwriting.  What the hell happened to this project?  The only remotely good this about this is just how much of a spotlight this shines on bands that try so hard to sound genuinely experimental and flop.  Newsflash, it’s not nearly as easy as it looks.   By the time “Pink or Die” rolls around I feel like I’m trapped in a damn fun house.  Every time I feel like DRINKS may be on to something a little more focused, we just get more of the same.  It’s just another clumsily recorded instrumental, with another awkward vocal performance.  That’s right, “Pink Or Die” is just more Experimental Rock that sounds like a bunch of high schoolers made up as a joke.  I wasn’t totally into their last album, but at least on that album DRINKS made a good argument on why they should be releasing music.  Now, I’m I’m completely baffled when it comes to this finale.  “You Could Be Better” shows Cate and Tim bringing in some actually interesting instrumentals.  They’ve been going for an unnerving sound for this entire album practically.  But thanks to some winding synths and twisted violin notes, they finally have found the tension they were looking for.  I mean, the two of them still sound like they can give a shit less about this track of the album in general.  But hey, at least I can sit through this as a finale.  

Rating: 5.9/10

Give A Listen To: "In The Night Kitchen", "Greasing Up",  IF IT… (Reprise)", "You Could Be Better" 

Genre: Psychedelic Rock / Experimental Rock

Overall Thoughts: Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley come together for their second album under the DRINKS name, and it might just be the most awkward collaboration you'll hear this entire year.  Cate is a truly accomplished Singer Songwriter, and I've loved Tim's production in the past, this should be a match made in heaven.  But there are only a very few moments on here that DRINKS sound like they're on the same page.  The performances are genuinely awkward, the instrumentals are amateurish, and if this album has a direction I don't know what it is.  What's sad is, some of the most memorable tracks here are brief, one minute interludes, it's that bad.  I still think they've had true chemistry in the past, and they can easily have it again.  But this is a shining example of just recording whatever the hell you want and putting it with some off-kilter production doesn't make for an Experimental Rock record.