Natural, Everyday Degradation - Remo Drive: Review
Remo Drive
are a promising young midwestern emo band who burst onto the scene in 2017 with their breakout single Yer Killin Me and followed it up with the critically acclaimed Greatest Hits. After the departure of their drummer the duo dropped a short EP in 2018 and released three singles in the lead up to Natural, Everyday Degradation.
Review By Lavender:
Not very many emo bands, or bands period get off to as promising a start as Remo Drive. The groups breakout single Yer Killin Me stands head and shoulders above pretty much any other emo tunes this decade and landed in my top 20 singles of the year back in 2017. The album that the song ultimately landed on Greatest Hits was a solid collection of tunes but the band needed to develop some new elements of their style. I was happy to see the start this transition on the short but sweet Pop Music EP in 2018 which contained another single I liked a lot and landed on my year end list with Blue Ribbon. While some of the albums singles may have predicted this change in direction going sharply, the defining characteristic of much of this albums style is boredom.
The era opened up with a split single of Two Bux and The Grind. These two songs represent much of the material, mostly good but with some very spotty moments. Two Bux is a song I liked a lot when I first heard it and while it hasn't grown on me I still enjoy it. It pulls out a classic grunge loud-quiet-loud dynamic with an intimate vocal performance and really the only thing that needs work is the chorus. The Grind on the other hand brings some despondent and personal lyrics but the singing is not high quality by any means and none of the refrains, including a completely flat chorus, are catchy at all.
Thankfully now I get to talk about the albums third single and the newest entry into their already strong line of absolutely incredible singles. Around The Sun is guaranteed to land on my year end list and is a shoe in for the bands best song since Yer Killin Me. The track opens with some amazing strained vocal refrains that have my attention from the opening seconds, but it really hits it out of the park on the hook. The instrumental is tight and supportive of a killer performance from frontman Erik Paulson that is guaranteed to remind you why you used to love emo so much. The track has a great blend of emotional potency both positive and negative and is just generally an excellent tune.
Most of the tracks on this album are closer to Two Bux than Around The Sun given that many of them have solid performances both instrumentally and vocally but lack the flare that made the band so interesting to begin with. Shakin is an unfortunately forgettable track as it has quite a lot going for it. The band hilariously borrows AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long refrain and the track even features some impressively technical percussion but ultimately it is just okay and doesn't really separate itself with any memorable moments. Dog is one of the few songs with a sharp hook and it borrows heavily from 2000's emo pop. The track has a long build that can be a touch boring at points but the payoff is an fantastic, sharp and exciting hook and bridge that wrap everything up well.
Separate Beds is another moment of wasted opportunity as the thematic elements of this song and its storytelling are excellent. It doesn't really have a true chorus but with such a sharp narrative I don't mind it at all. The song unfortunately can't stay anywhere close to sonically interesting through its entire runtime and it really starts to show in the second half. Given that the lyrics are more than compelling enough to hold my attention this is ultimately an okay track that really should have been great. Mirror is a decent track with some wandering songwriting that basically serves as a series of loosely connected exciting passages with passionate vocals but it definitely could have used some structure.
A handful of tracks here dive into some other genres and provide refreshing takes on the new Remo Drive sound. The Devil has a much more explosive and frontal instrumental that I like a lot. Even though the chorus isn't perfect I like the vocals a lot and every time they are strained to their limit it is in pursuit of fantastic refrains. Halos interpolates an emo classic genre pairing with some math rock time signatures and even though they are given up a little bit of the way into the song I do still really enjoy the track and it was one of the less impactful songs that I still found to be really rewarding.
Most of the tracks on this album are closer to Two Bux than Around The Sun given that many of them have solid performances both instrumentally and vocally but lack the flare that made the band so interesting to begin with. Shakin is an unfortunately forgettable track as it has quite a lot going for it. The band hilariously borrows AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long refrain and the track even features some impressively technical percussion but ultimately it is just okay and doesn't really separate itself with any memorable moments. Dog is one of the few songs with a sharp hook and it borrows heavily from 2000's emo pop. The track has a long build that can be a touch boring at points but the payoff is an fantastic, sharp and exciting hook and bridge that wrap everything up well.
Separate Beds is another moment of wasted opportunity as the thematic elements of this song and its storytelling are excellent. It doesn't really have a true chorus but with such a sharp narrative I don't mind it at all. The song unfortunately can't stay anywhere close to sonically interesting through its entire runtime and it really starts to show in the second half. Given that the lyrics are more than compelling enough to hold my attention this is ultimately an okay track that really should have been great. Mirror is a decent track with some wandering songwriting that basically serves as a series of loosely connected exciting passages with passionate vocals but it definitely could have used some structure.
A handful of tracks here dive into some other genres and provide refreshing takes on the new Remo Drive sound. The Devil has a much more explosive and frontal instrumental that I like a lot. Even though the chorus isn't perfect I like the vocals a lot and every time they are strained to their limit it is in pursuit of fantastic refrains. Halos interpolates an emo classic genre pairing with some math rock time signatures and even though they are given up a little bit of the way into the song I do still really enjoy the track and it was one of the less impactful songs that I still found to be really rewarding.
Even though most of these songs are redeemable in some way there are a handful I can't quite rationalize. Ezra and Marla is probably the worst track here and completely lacks any energy that is the ethos surrounding emo music. The chorus is a total flop and the by the numbers themes and emotional pull and push are totally generic by this point on the album. This is by far the least essential track here. Finally the closing song The Truth isn't terrible but it is very uninspired especially for the closer. It does a lot of things just barely well enough to be passable and pretty much everything here is done better on different points on the record.
Natural, Everyday Degradation is the very definition of okay. The album is decent while it's on but ultimately nearly all of these songs are forgettable and while I wouldn't consider this a bad record it is clear nobody will be talking about it years from now. I will continue to keep my eyes on Remo Drive and how their sound evolves especially given how sharp a handful of their singles have been, but I have a feeling if they get better overtime Natural will be forgotten very soon. 6/10
Best Track: Around The Sun
For more emo check out my review of American Football's American Football here.
