Album Review: Remember Sports – “Slow Buzz”
Posted: by The Editor
The Philadelphia-based pop-punk band Remember Sports (fka Sports) return with their third LP “Slow Buzz” on Father/Daughter Records. The band carries off a special breed of the punk genre, having an innocent sense to their music. The twangy riffs and lyricism dealing with feelings of love and dating bring forward memories of high school and middle school. Delivering an album that comes off as a soundtrack to a great early 2000’s teen movie, Slow Buzz is the Lisa Frank of pop-punk music in 2018.
Refining their production quality, the sound is more crisp and clear than on their previous records Sunchokes and All of Something. Still holding onto some of the fuzz that has been tracked across their previous records, the band sounds tighter than ever. Honing down more on their sound and taking themselves more seriously. Opening with track “Otherwise” including a callback lyric to the title of the album “slow buzz” and introducing a synthesizer into the band’s sound. Creating a “slow buzz” into the song’s fast paced melody and chorus “at least I’m okay otherwise”. That’s one of the things that Remember Sports does so efficiently well, they don’t sugarcoat what there are trying to say with their lyrics. It’s real and raw. The arrangements on “Otherwise” set the tone for what Slow Buzz is going to be all about.
Flowing into the second track “Up From Below” which was previously released as a single. Opening up with a groovy guitar riff and immediately jumping into lead singer Carmen Perry’s cascading lyrics into chorus are what keeps this band’s punk-rock vibe going. Her scratchy vocal delivery is what I think makes this band so special. It keeps that same angst that I feel like bands of Remember Sport’s age group grew up on, yet keeping it original and up to date.
Tracks such as “Temporary Tattoo” and “Calling Out” continue the album’s transition from slower songs to faster paced ones. Each track holds a unique taste to them, almost like reaching into a bag of Dum-Dum pops and pulling out different flavors, the songs all carry their individual senses but yet all fall into the same breed. They all connect to each other in this creative way without the worry some of having all of the tracks sound the same. That was my biggest worry coming into this album as many others of the same genre as Remember Sports have fallen into. The trap of continuing the same sound so much that it all becomes one giant blob and not having any type of break-ups within the mix. Slow Buzz doesn’t do that, instead it offers a collective opinion and identity of relationships in our contemporary era.
Witty lyrics like those in “Calling” saying “I make you play another round of guess what I am thinking” are the words that describe our anxieties going into relationships in the era of text messages and words on screens. Keeping it refreshing and interesting within the context of majority male bands singing about their own romantic interests. Slow Buzz has a lot to offer within its curves and dynamic instrumental relationships, it serves as a new standing ground for the band and as a means for the band to move forward into their next project.
Slow Buzz definitely paves itself to a new path of pop-punk. Bringing forth the new era of those who grew up on Green Day and Blink-182. Remember Sports are not the angsty teens, they’re the adults discovering themselves in life. This album is a launchpad for where their sound should take off to next. They’re taking themselves more seriously and discovering more of their identity through the music.
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Disappointing / Average / Good / Great / Phenomenal
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Writing and photography by Sarah Knoll
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