![remo drive greatest hits remo drive greatest hits](https://64.media.tumblr.com/be5d20b50a92afdd9f1910bf0f7bfddf/tumblr_inline_p5m56aoNAv1rpfxyz_1280.jpg)
And, like the band’s earliest material, it took shape in an equally unassuming place: their parents’ basement. The album, with its acrobatic guitar work, deeply self-referential lyrics, and off-the-walls energy, calls back to the dextrous, eccentric sound that helped the band – brothers Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) Paulson – explode into the underground with their debut album, 2017’s Greatest Hits. If their debut truly was their Greatest Hits, then Natural, Everyday Degradation is the portion of their catalogue that will be forgotten, and rightfully so.A slice of tremolo-heavy classic rock filtered through the lens of the gunslinging American West, Remo Drive’s third LP, A Portrait of an Ugly Man, is in many ways a return to form for the Minnesota-based indie-rock duo. But outside of a few moments here and there, the album takes no risks, and doesn’t deliver it’s simple ideas in a captivating enough way to be forgivable. Occasionally they’ll break through the haze, with “The Grind” beginning to pick up tempo as the song progresses and teasingly having background vocals mixed too far into the background and a varied vocal performance including falsetto on “Around the Sun”. The band seems to not care, and not in an “I’m depressed and it’s relatable” emo rock sort of way - Every member of the band just seems incredibly disconnected, from the emotionless vocal delivery, to the repetitive song structure, to the lack of drive in the percussion. It’s 38 minutes of the same just-ok song. It’s a collection of perfectly serviceable indie-rockers that aren’t painful to listen to however, that is all that the album stands to be. In all truth, there’s nothing necessarily bad about the record when listening to it.
![remo drive greatest hits remo drive greatest hits](https://res.cloudinary.com/epitaph/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,h_540,q_auto,w_540/v1/epitaph/releases/0045778760367.png)
This may be the most disappointing part of the Remo Drive’s progression to this undeniable sophomore slump. Less excitement and more polish has led to something bland, words that even the most ardent of Remo Drive naysayers wouldn’t be able to prescribe to Greatest Hits. However, when every song has the same uninspired drum fills at this mid-tempo pace, the album fails to develop any sort of clear identity.
Song tempo has been slowed down consistently across the board, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Interesting riffs no longer are an important part of the song structure, which might be a blessing in disguise, as there is a drought of interesting riffs across all eleven tracks. All emphasis in the mix is now placed on the vocals, which have gained an even more nasally quality without any of the grit and shouts from their previous album. Put bluntly, Remo Drive took all of the peaks and highlights from Greatest Hits and simply performed all of them at a lower level on Natural, Everyday Degradation. On “Yer Killing Me”, they said they “don’t want to ***ing be here anymore” on their follow-up album, it now simply sounds like they don’t want to be here, and the listener is sure to share in that sentiment. With follow up Natural, Everyday Degradation, the band loses all of this energy and puts on a sorely dispassionate performance. However, they were an impassioned group of artists who pulled listeners in to their grip by successfully energizing catchy melodic vocals, interesting and driving riffs, and a percussion section that never let that energy die. They were rough around the edges, didn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, and took obvious influence from old and new bands within the genre.
![remo drive greatest hits remo drive greatest hits](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1kaMiIaT-sg/maxresdefault.jpg)
“Yer Killing Me”, the lead single from Remo Drive’s fairly beloved debut album Greatest Hits, launched the band into relative emo fame the second Erik Paulson shouted out “I don’t want to ***ing be here anymore” amid the chaotically charming instrumental combo of 90s radio rock and new-wave emo. Review Summary: A non-charming case of not wanting to be here anymore.