Two years ago, a little band that could from Alabama made a song called "Gramarye," a melancholy ditty that made an appearance on the soundtrack to Stigmata and whose video became a dark horse favorite on MTV 2. The band was Remy Zero and the song was a marvelously haunting piece, laced with beaucoup minor piano chords and heavy, distorted guitars that showcased lead-singer Cinjun Tate's massively appealing vocal agony. While "Gramarye" and its album, Villa Elaine, didn't turn too many heads among the consumer populace, it turned enough to make its follow-up release, and the band's third, The Golden Hum, an anticipated one. Unfortunately, Remy trades experimentalism for banality on this outing and what remains is merely an average rock album, worth a few listens but nothing to drool over.
That isn't to say Hum doesn't have its moments. Playing like The Bends era Radiohead, "Bitter" sounds like a modern day "Just" with Tate crooning: "I'm waiting for something else/ I already lost myself/ This day is descending/ The flower is bending." Poor thing! The first potential single, "Save Me," flows well (and mundanely) enough, but "Over The Rails & Hollywood High" proves to be the album's climax with a confused mess of an intro, converging into a tight guitar line that yields to Tate's vocal strength while he condemns television culture. Sadly for Tate, watching TV is all too viable an alternative to listening to Hum for more than about five times. If you must, though, check out Remy Zero with Travis Saturday at the Electric Factory.
