Drook — The Pure Joy of Jumping

Pop

Independent

2024

Drook’s debut LP is a culmination of years worth of experimenting with their sound. The result is exhilarating and surprising, and one of my favourite new records.

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I don’t know what linked me to Drook, but when I hit play on this video for “Sprinter” I couldn’t look away. The energy of the music is matched by the intensity of the performance. At one point I thought my headphones were misbehaving or something, but nope – the song just goes in unexpected directions. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.

There is so much going on in that track. It’s a perfect indie-pop until it veers into new territory: “Sprinter” is the most interesting song I’ve heard in a while. Is it all like this?

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It’s the first song on Drook’s debut album The Pure Joy of Jumping, released in September, and I’m pleased to report: There’s more where that came from. So much more. The album is confident, bold and varied. Drook’s sound is distinct and original while spanning a whole range of styles.

Drook has been putting out music since 2018, and they’ve had a couple of pivots in that time. Their original name was (the unsearchable) She, and in 2022 they changed their name with the release of EP Life in Estates. As She (and on the first post-She EP), they were a much more conventional indie-rock band, sometimes screamy, grungy, or shoegazey, always very serious. Their whole catalog exists on Spotify and at their Bandcamp page — Apple Music doesn’t go back quite as far.

In 2023, they released a single called Mr. Fisher’s Dirty Club Mix, which is full-on electronic pop.

From an interview in VPM on the release of Mr. Fisher:

It’s such a natural thing for us to make dance music, and then to make ambient music, and then to make a rock song and then to make a capital-P Pop song. We just happen to write that way. We would get so bored making one kind of thing.

That’s a nice segue to The Pure Joy of Jumping, which is as eclectic and genre-defying as any record I’ve heard this year. It’s an impressive production: the three band members each seem to be music nerds. Check out the Bandcamp credits:

Liza Grishaeva – Lyrics, Vocals, Guitar, Strings, Piano
Matthew Shultz – Guitar, Keyboards, Synthesizers, Programming, Strings, Bass
Tyler Smith – Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Synthesizers, Programming, Strings

…this explains a lot about the breadth and depth of the music below. Drook is immensely talented and creative.

The first single in the leadup to the record was “Girls Around Me”, a melancholy midtempo indie-pop song:

The next single in the leadup to the record is called “Texas/Awful Stories”, which is the other end of the spectrum: frantic drum & bass, breathless vocal, and relentless energy until it shifts into the a kind of demented country song:

Did you have a baby?

Did it die in your arms?

Did it love you like you loved it?

Did it live to talk?

Or did it turn into somebody with problems?

It’s difficult to select tracks that are indicative of the band’s style. Their versatility is exhilarating and surprising. These songs are built for a close listen; they’re layered and often take off in unexpected directions. Drook’s inventiveness and talent has made them an act I can’t wait to see live.

Of course they played Toronto twice in 2024 before I’d heard of them. Based on some of the live show videos on YouTube, they bring the intense energy to the stage too.

December 3, 2024