“Only Love,” the B-side to Draa’s new Funeral Party single, is clean. With the clarity and depth of production of a DIIV or a Real Estate, the Arizona quartet’s new material is also awash with the moving and mercurial jangle of britpop, and with his croon and style, frontman Mac Martin wears his regard for Morrissey and The Smiths on his sleeve. But Draa don’t want to be pinned down anymore; as the group cleans up vocals and guitars in their mix, I feel that I’m not supposed to use the “s-word,” even though they still remind me a little bit of Ride. Their music is youthfully restless and sentimental, but like the muted sepia of the photographs included on designer Collin Fletcher’s single art, an expression of these qualities is reduced — in a way, sublimated — to a clean play of surfaces across a controlled palette. In spite of its dejected or regretful attitude, something about “Only Love” feels also sybaritic, almost decadent, in its time and place.
Out today, you can order the 7-inch at the above link and stream the A-side, “Even In My Dreams (All My Life),” at Draa’s Bandcamp. Although the pre-order period for snagging the deluxe package has ended, if you keep your ear to the real and digital streets, you might one day snag 1 of the 50 rare cassettes of the group’s Part Time Punk session for your future teenage child to steal from among your old stuff and blast in your car’s shitty tape deck when they sneak out.
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