Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By

  by Andrew Carver

published: 19 / 10 / 2005

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The Drones are responsible for one of the new century’s best albums, and one of rock and roll’s most ferocious debuts. The incendiary 'Here Come the Lies' raged like an angry drunk against cruelty, conformity and ill luck with a brutal vigour not heard since the Beasts of Bourbon on their best day. “Extra special thanks,” read the liners “to the ravages of homicidal paranoid schizophrenia, burglary (x2), general theft, cancer, alcohol abuse, grief, kidney infection, gentrification, poverty, auto-anorexia, 2 sets of busted ribs and a busted leg, electrical thunderstorms and pneumonia during recording sessions and anyone/anything else that hates us.” One might say the band has a bit of a chip on its shoulder. Singer and guitarist Gareth Liddiard tortured his larynx with a vocal yowl like a man coming up for air for the last time; whether hissing with white heat and howling with heartfelt pain, his ragged voice is one of the most desperately human in music His guitar playing is his singing’s electric twin, distorted and twisted; plenty of axemen get compared to Neil Young just for turning up and twisting a few strings; Lilliard is the real deal – his music retains the power of melody while still suggesting a row of telephone poles being yanked out by a passing hurricane. That the sound and fury of his debut also reveled in the fragility of human nature, the broken side of emotion and existence was just more gilding on its musical triumph. There would be little point in replicating the same savage assault of their debut – to try would be to tempt parody – but The Drones have still managed to craft a successor that still scorches emotions and ears alike. On 'Wait Long By the River…and the Bodies of Your Enemies Float By'the fury is tempered somewhat by fear and remorse. Lilliard’s howl meanwhile becomes a mournful croon in songs like 'Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin’' before raging again. The band have filled out their music with extra touches like the organ in 'The Best You Can Believe In' which drones like a church bell before swirling away into industrial-grade tremolo. The Drones have also developed their lyrics from their half-covers debut. “Georgie, I can’t stop drinking,” Lilliard sings while a piano plinks and something creaks in the background of 'Locust' while he gives a lowdown on his hometown. “Iron from the ground, and knife wounds from the port … the built a prison like a temple in the sun … it rose off a platter like the last tooth in a gum.” This is hard-bitten poetry about a place haunted by suicide, damaged veterans and racism. Behind it a storm of electricity builds as the players bash their instrument, in a style reminiscent of the crescendo in a 'A Day in The Life' before passing away to let Lilliard’s distorted guitar throw sparks into the space left by its absence. Still the, high energy remains on songs like 'You Really Don’t Care', which sounds like 'Exile On Main Street' era Stones amped up and hammered, swaggering with a bilious sneer out the door of whoever is being kissed off. 'Wait Long By the River…and the Bodies of Your Enemies Float By' is the hard stuff – and everyone should take a swig.

Track Listing:-

1 Shark Fin Blues
2 Baby
3 The Best You Can Believe In
4 Locust
5 You Really Don't Care
6 Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin'
7 The Freedom In The Loot
8 Another Rousing Chorus You Idiots!!!
9 This Time

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