A quartet of Brooklyn indie rock veterans,
Drawing Boards alternate between melodic dream pop and noisy textures on their self-titled debut. The Queens-based band is rooted in the partnership of singer/guitarist Aaron Pfannebecker (Sisters) and singer/drummer Doug Marvin (
Dirty on Purpose), who first launched
Drawing Boards as a bedroom pop project centered around their mutual admiration of
R.E.M.,
Television, and novelists Joan Didion and Jenny Offill. Later transitioning into a live act, the two brought in
Darlings frontman Peter Rynsky on guitar and
TEEN member Jane Herships on bass. Pleasingly melancholic but bearing some jagged edges, these 12 tracks cruise along in a generally midtempo manner, for the most part remaining buoyant in spite of their reflective emotional tone and frequent guitar abrasions. The laid-back vocal delivery of tracks like "The Punchline Is a Gun" and "Grass Grows Backwards" paired with their distorted landscapes makes for a nice dichotomy, and the overall tone is decidedly D.I.Y. without being intentionally lo-fi. The melodies are subtle and don't quite leap out of the speakers, but as a whole this is a nice debut full of thoughtful, well-crafted songwriting. ~ Timothy Monger