Natural Everyday EP - Remo Drive: EP Review

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Remo Drive

 are a Minnesota based emo band who blew up in 2017 with their record Greatest Hits and its breakout indie darling tune Yer Killin Me. After the band released a well loved EP the next year they followed up their debut with a second record earlier this year that many saw as a disappointment that lacked the energy and creative songwriting of the bands debut, this EP contains two songs from the same sessions as that record and a re-recording of one of the songs that appears on the groups second record.

Review By Lavender:
I was really excited for Natural Every Day Degradation earlier this year but it falls far short of the expectations that the band had set up to that point. I wasn't thrilled for this EP given that only a few tracks have really stuck with me since I heard the record earlier this year but the tracks here definitely could have improved the record and I ended up really enjoying two of the three.

Romeo opens the EP off with a solid start. The track features some amazing lyrics that I absolutely adore but there isn't quite as much bite as I would have hoped for in the delivery of those lyrics. The hook has its catchy moments and the instrumental is pretty tight and keeps the track driving and interesting. The biggest surprise of the EP was a re-recording of the track Separate Beds, a song that I thought was decent on the album. The original recording of the track had some great storytelling elements but one of the weakest instrumentals and most lifeless mixes I've heard in any recent emo music. This redone version of the track is seriously a lot better because not only does the vocal delivery hit even harder but the instrumentation is SO much more supportive of the storytelling and is pretty much the exact improvements I would have chosen to make.

The one song I didn't love was the EP's lone single Nearly Perfect, the track just doesn't pop as much as the other two and the vocals never really hit a passionate or dramatic high, on top of this the song and the entire EP just end out of nowhere. While the song isn't the worst I've heard from the band this year it is definitely the weakest spot on the EP.

This EP falls far short of redeeming Remo Drive for a rough release earlier this year but it does feel like a step in the right direction from a band who has made consistently sharp short form and single releases. Going forward all I can hope for is that Remo Drive can assemble some more sharp performances and explosive mixes of fiery lyrics and passionate lead vocals more often than they did on their last record. 6.5/10

For more Remo Drive check out my review of Natural Everyday, Degradation here
For more emo check out my review of Frank Iero's Barriers here 

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