Virtue Signals

Steven Adams's (ex Broken Family Band) first with his new group, The French Drops, is an album that rails against the iniquities of the world and meshes the personal with the political, without ever smacking the listener around the head.

Adams (former songwriter/singer/guitarist with The Broken Family Band and Singing Adams) can't help but be witty and empathetic even as he rages, and the fury is wrapped inside his characteristically sweet melodies. The album's tone is set from the opening track, "Bad Apples," a song addressing flag-waving, aggressive patriots.

The lyrics are alternately playful and oblique, in the spirit of songwriters like John Lennon or Britt Daniel from Spoon. Where Adams aims to remove ambiguity and play with metaphor, as with "Ex Future," the opacity of his writing means he doesn't descend into cliché, and the meaning often becomes clearer with each listen.