According to frontman Jonny Pierce, The Drums’ brilliantly naïve debut was written from the perspective of someone 10 years younger. The group’s sophomore effort, Portamento, finds the band maturing but not yet mature, as it pumps out two-note New Order guitar riffs and whiny screeds against parents, religion, and its members’ empty wallets. The angst doesn’t end with the album, however. After guitarist Adam Kessler left, his bandmates deemed his contributions “minimal at best.” But from the way these new songs emulate but never attain the effortless fun of 2010’s buzz-making LP, that slam might have been premature. On that record, “Down By The Water” marked a transition, roughly separating the playful tracks from the wistful. On Portamento, “Searching For Heaven” fills the buffer role, but its unfortunate Jean-Luc Ponty-meets-Kraftwerk burble just isolates the simplistic and forgettable from the simply forgettable.