Me & My Drummer - The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey

Me And My Drummer is a band, perhaps unsurprisingly, made up of a girl and her drummer. Their debut album, ‘The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey’, is 40 minutes of pretty alt-pop, filled with powerful percussion and delicate vocals. First single ‘You’re A Runner’ is, admittedly, pretty hilarious when you consider the lyrics in relation to the Olympics fever currently coursing through the UK’s veins: “You’re a runner / Why do you want to kill yourself?” But more than that, it’s an excellent song, and a good introduction to the album.

The actual introduction to ‘The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey’, opener ‘Phobia’, is also a good way to ease you into the album, with its gentle synth building up into a brilliant crescendo and Charlotte Brandi’s vocals sounding almost hauntingly gorgeous. ‘Rain Kids’ has more of the same keys, but the percussion feels a little more driven, taking a little bit of focus off from other sounds in the song.

After the gentle synth-pop of the first few songs on the album, ‘Don’t Be So Hot’ marks a definite change. As Charlotte sings “Cool me down, don’t be so hot” there’s a darker touch to everything, piano tinkles replacing synth and male vocals adding to a delicate, intimate soundscape that gives way in the last minute of the track to a powerful crescendo that fades to nothing. It’s a definite highlight of the album.

The humming of ‘The Wings’ carries on with that darker side to Me And My Drummer’s dream-pop. When it’s just Charlottes clear vocals practically on their own, with only the slightest percussion behind them, there’s a real goosepimples moment.

But the album changes gear again. ‘Down My Couch’ is almost angry, the vocals more guttural in parts, and the percussion more in front. It’s one of the shortest tracks on ‘The Hawk, the Beak, the Prey’, but it packs a punch.

‘Heavy Weight’ marks a return to the synth-driven alt-pop, a highlights a slight problem with the album. There are so many promising songs here, but they don’t form a cohesive unit, and generally don’t flow together too well. The sombre ‘Runner (Reprise)’ closes the album with yet another new direction from Me and My Drummer, featuring introspective lyrics and pretty much no sign of the ‘My Drummer’ part of the band for over half the track.

If Me And My Drummer were a British band, this would be a good debut, but one that maybe gets ignored for other synth-pop bands’ hyped-up albums. But as it is, Me And My Drummer are German, singing in English. And with a debut as promising as this, we should feel lucky if we get them onto our shores any time soon.