Posts Tagged ‘Erik Paulson’

REMO DRIVE – ” A Portrait of An Ugly Man “

Posted: July 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Not many bands in the current emo scene have undergone an evolution as swift and drastic as Remo Drive. Their 2017 debut album titled “Greatest Hits” was a fairly standard indie/emo/pop punk record, but the shimmering chords and classic power pop influences of its underrated 2019 follow-up album Natural, Everyday Degradation showed Remo Drive quickly making a leap from their scrappy roots. When that album came out, I compared it to the jump Saves The Day made from Through Being Cool to Stay What You Are, and their just-released third album “A Portrait of an Ugly Man” just might be their In Reverie.

Natural, Everyday Degradation hinted at “classic” sounds, but “Portrait of an Ugly Man” does a deep dive into your parents’ record collection, fusing elements of classic rock, desert rock, and Spaghetti Western scores and coming out with songs that sound wise beyond their years. It’s not just an improvement upon the band’s earlier work because it’s stylistically more “mature” though; as they explore different genres of music, Remo Drive are also getting better at everything they do. They’re better songwriters than ever, and they’re better producers too — like last year’s Natural, Everyday Degradation companion EP Natural, Everyday Extended Play, they produced Portrait themselves. And as much as the “dad rock” influences on this one are clear, Remo Drive still sound like the lively, youthful band that they always were. With the classic rock worship meeting the band’s emo roots, Portrait sounds a little like prime-era Okkervil River, and if you like that band, you should not overlook this one.

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Remo Drive is Erik Paulson and Stephen Paulson

Portrait of an Ugly Man was written and performed by Erik Paulson (Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, and Aux Percussion), Stephen Paulson (Bass Guitar and Midi Programming), and Sam Becht (Drums). Whitney Smith performed Violin on “If I’ve Ever Looked Too Deep In Thought”

All lyrics by Erik Paulson

Released June 26th, 2020

REMO DRIVE – ” A Portrait of An Ugly Man “

Posted: June 28, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Bloomington, Minnesota. indie duo Remo Drive have unveiled their third LP A Portrait of An Ugly Man. the first single “Ode to Joy 2,” taken from the album, is an edgy ballad inspired by alcohol, and the accompanying video is the visual representation of that fun drunken Friday night in the backseat of your friend’s car. “The lyrics were inspired by the excess I perceived around me as I transitioned from being a college student into touring full time,” says vocalist Erik Paulson. “Most people who’ve done either can confirm that many social interactions are built around having a drink or smoking weed. Once the honeymoon period of exploration was over for me, I became frustrated with the omnipresence of drugs and alcohol and wanted to write about it.”

The song has the same jaded sound as their last record Natural, Everyday Degradation, which was heavily imbued with nihilism. It seems like the hedonistic days of their debut, Greatest Hits, are already over.

REMO DRIVE – ” Natural, Everyday Degradation “

Posted: December 19, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Minnesota’s Remo Drive picked up a lot of buzz for their 2017 debut album “Greatest Hits”, which was self-released and soon became the talk of many emo-friendly online music circles. How many more bands with strained, nasally vocals, pop punk chord progressions, and silly song titles do we need? — but Remo Drive quickly caught on, signed to Epitaph Records, and continued to expand their fanbase. And now I’d say the many people who saw potential in them were right all along. Their recently-released second album is — in my humble opinion — much better than Greatest Hits and a pretty huge step forward.

“Natural, Everyday Degradation” has much cleaner production than Greatest Hits (it was produced by Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart and mixed by The National/Interpol collaborator Peter Katis), and the band’s singing and songwriting is a lot stronger than it was two years ago. The album is still under the umbrella of indie rock-friendly emo and pop punk, but these songs aren’t really written like emo or pop punk songs. Erik Paulson’s voice sounds a lot more pristine, and his melodies hearken back to classic pop like pre-acid Beatles or early power pop like Elvis Costello. His voice has evolved from a punky yelp into a matured croon, and he’s developed a real knack for songcraft that was only hinted at on Greatest Hits, and that you don’t hear everyday in the punk/emo scene. Also, Saves the Day and Joyce Manor are touring together later this year, and if you’re excited for that tour, Natural, Everyday Degradation is probably right up your alley.)

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Natural, Everyday Degradation is the kind of creative, artistic progression that you usually don’t hear this early on in a band’s career, so it already has me excited to hear where Remo Drive go next. If there are still some setbacks, the songs could be a little more musically diverse and Remo Drive could use a really strong chorus or two — the new album may remind me of Stay What You Are but they haven’t written their “At Your Funeral” yet — but at the rate they’re going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they churn out a modern classic one of these days.