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The Drift, "Blue Hour"
I was very curious about what The Drift's latest album was going to sound like, as so much has changed since 2008's well-regarded Memory Drawings: Danny Paul Grody fell in love with steel-string acoustic guitars, stellar double-bassist Safa Shokrai left the band, and–most significantly–founding member Jeff Jacobs succumbed to cancer.  The band opted not to replace Jacobs, which left them with the very difficult puzzle of continuing without their primary melodic instrument.  The resultant album understandably loses all traces of their jazzier, more dub-inflected recent work (Jacobs played trumpet), but returns fairly successfully to The Drift's more straightforward post-rock roots...sometimes.
Thankfully, one good thing emerged from the loss of half the damn band: original bassist Trevor Montgomery is back.  That means that 2/3 of The Drift have been members of Tarentel.  There are some definite similarities between the two bands (particularly with Tarentel's earlier work), but The Drift are clearly working towards very different ends.  In fact, they are working towards completely different ends than even The Drift circa 2008.  While Blue Hour lacks any of Tarentel's brooding experimentalism or Memory Drawing's sinuous grooves or hazy trumpet solos, it does boast a killer rhythm section in its own right.  Montgomery and drummer Rich Douthit shine brightest in the relentlessly propulsive "Dark Passage" and the lurchingly off-beat "Continuum," but they provide Grody with a very tight, muscular, and punchy foundation for most of the album.  As much as I love Grody, they pretty much steal the album, as the success or failure of each piece is heavily dependent on the strength of its groove.
That is not to say that Grody's playing is not excellent, but he has the unenviable task of carrying almost all of the album's melodic weight himself and his strengths tend to be of a more minimal/ textural/ atmospheric nature (on the electric guitar, anyway).  Also, his guitars are too processed to have the presence and bite necessary to hold the melodic foreground over the thick bass and rumbling toms.  He certainly delivers some inspired moments, such as the shimmering, delay-heavy shoegaze-inspired crescendo on "Luminous Friend," but that is not quite the same as delivering a satisfying composition.
Many songs just plod and meander along without a strong hook to carry them, which is hugely exasperating because everything else is so strong.  Something new needs to fill the void that Jacobs' vanished trumpet left.  I think the band must have realized that themselves at some point, as they reinterpret Grody's own "Hello From Everywhere" with a melodica as the lead instrument (I think).  It lacks the beauty and intimacy of the original (which is a great song), but the jangly looseness coupled with a strong melodic motif is a definite step in the right direction.  Grody's "Fountain" also makes an appearance, but unfortunately gets stretched into a somewhat interminable 12-minute jam.
Despite all my grumblings, I wouldn't classify this album as a failure or a misfire so much as a valiant transitional effort...and perhaps a bit premature (Blue Hour would be very brief if the Grody solo covers, the drone interludes, and the obviously improvised pieces were omitted).  I am happy to have The Drift back and there are a few very good songs here, but a  bass/drum/guitar trio with no vocals or strong lead instrument is unlikely to hold my attention for very long, no matter how talented the players involved.  I like the new line-up, but until the compositional and melodic holes are filled, the whole is doomed to be less than the sum of its parts.
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