Inlet - Hum: Review
is an Illinois based alternative rock and metal band who had a string of successful records in the 90's with a few moderate commercial successes. After a 22 year studio album gap where they played sporadic live shows in between side projects the band returned with the surprise drop of Inlet.
Review By Lavender:
I know I'm late on this one. I wasn't as familiar as I would have liked to be with Hum's back catalog when this record was surprised dropped so in between reviewing other records I would pop back to old Hum records from the 90's and somehow this review ended up lost in translation. Now that I have the context I needed to take this record on I can say two things, you could have absolutely convinced me that Inlet was written and recorded in the 90's as the bands sound remains instantly recognizable, and also that I am quite a fan of this bands work Inlet included.
The only two songs on the record I wasn't a huge fan of were the two shortest tracks with the most conventional structure. Step Into You has some guitar fuzz hanging in the background of pretty much the entire track yet its sound remains pretty accessible. It also sounds like a track that could have fit in really well with some of the bands less creative 90's contemporaries. Cloud City is a little bit better although it has the thinnest guitars of any song on the record by far. The first half of the track falls into some slightly tacky conventional radio rockisms that I don't think fit really well but I do have to give the song credit for its manic instrumental jam of an outro that sounds pretty awesome.
Waves is the opening track and it kicks the record off fittingly with a roaring guitar lead that knocks you onto your fucking back right away. The reverb heavy shoegaze influenced guitar work is quintessentially 90's as are the macho yet distant lead vocals. The song is a rush of energy and maintained heaviness to kick the record off with. In The Den on the other hand features much more frontal vocals that soar in after a short instrumental introduction. I do wish I could hear a bit more of the instrumental wailing away in the background because it sounds awesome but the mixing on the song clearly intends for it to take the backseat. Despite the songs nearly 7 minute runtime it breezes by given how easy it is to get lost in the mesmerizing drum patterns and triumphant chorus.
That is the shorter half of the records 8 track, the other four songs here being 8+ minute huge tracks that have some points that aren't perfect but overall work really well. Shapeshifter is the closer and has some strong doom metal parallels in the instrumental while the vocals much more channel shoegaze style. The combination is unique and while it isn't one of my favorite songs on the record I do think it is a fitting one to end off on. The fading outro is a great punctuation for the chugging and hard-hitting journey that the album is up to that point. Folding comes just before this and it's one of the most inherently emotional songs with vocals that are up close and personal. While a lot of the lyrics on the record can be abstract and poetic for some reason the lyrics on Folding in particular resonate with me a lot and make for some incredibly cool moments. The track also employs some pretty slick compositional techniques with with slow rising and falling of the track which is punctuated by distant spacey guitar that melds into the background.
The Summoning wastes no time getting started with another chugging heavy lead guitar riff to kick off the records second half. It is one of the more doom metal oriented tracks with those transcendent reverberating chords flying off into space as a part of long grinding instrumental passages. The song will wear you down over it's 8 minutes but it feels very intentional if not a touch long winded. Thankfully the records best track is it's longest, at just over 9 minutes Desert Rambler is spectacular. The song first gets off to a heart-pumping start with one of my favorite instrumentals on the album. The tight loop everything works around makes for one sonic crash after another that doesn't get old. Once the vocals come in they hover immaculately over the booming instrumental. They pull back around the midpoint of the song for a much softer passage that features dreamy vocals and a stripped back instrumental reminiscent of something you'd hear in a slowcore song. The track is a winding, dramatic and incredibly grand piece that I can't get enough of.
Inlet is the comeback I didn't know I needed from a band I didn't know I loved, but now that it's here I'm loving Hum's dense atmospheres, chugging and heavy instrumentals and genre blending style. While the record fits in comfortably with a 20 year old discography the albums 90's aesthetic isn't something to hold against it given how influential the band were to the initial iteration of that sound. Like Slowdive before them 22 years proved to be the magic number for a comeback that shows off the talent behind a beloved band all these years later. 8/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
Very simple cover but it doesn't have anything about it that makes it special. It's a low quality landscape photo and while I like the monochromatic color palette there needs to be something that pops out at you. This could've been solved by a little bit of text or even a single foreground subject. It reminds me of the Ye cover from Kanye West and while that wasn't super successful either it still had something to draw you eye in.
The views expressed by one Tyler Judson do not reflect the beliefs of Lavender Alexandria or Music Corner, especially on this one. <3
For more experimental rock and metal check out my review of the new Jesu EP Never here
