Hum "Inlet" (2020) ****1/2
Hum surprise releasing their fifth album Inlet (their first in 22 years!) is a small ray of light in 2020, a heavily emotional year for many people for various reasons. Rumors had circulated that the band had been working on a new album for years (I even chatted about this with their manager at a The Life And Times show, which my friend Luke photographed, a few years back). But no one expected them to drop the album with no announcement whatsoever.
Inlet is a grower, or should I say…it's a "shifter" (fittingly, the album's closer is even called "Shapeshifter"). What I mean by that is, past the initial excitement of hearing Matt Talbot and Tim Lash's trademark distorted wall of guitars kicking off the album opener "Waves", my first-time listen left me unsure how to feel. There were standout tracks ("In The Den", "The Summoning"), to be sure, and sections of particular songs captivated me as well. But as I listened to the album in full a few more times, I really began to appreciate it as a whole—less as a collection of songs than as an album, to be digested as such. I guess that has been the case for Hum albums all along, but very much for this one in particular.
It's interesting to note that this is the Hum album with the least songs (only eight), but is also their longest—in fact, every Hum album has progressively gotten longer. Inlet's length (55:31) is even listed on the cover, continuing the trend started on the band's 1995 major label breakthrough You'd Prefer An Astronaut. Naturally, this means that the songs are also long—only one track is the average-rock-song length of 4 minutes, three songs are 8 minutes or longer, and "Desert Rambler", the longest, clocks in at just over 9 minutes—and that very much works in their favor. Hum is really able to lock into a mood and a groove and hold you there.
The sound of Inlet fits right into Hum's discography—there aren't any big surprises, but neither does this feel like old hat. In that way, I'm reminded of a similar-sounding band (whose drummer Jason Gerken coincidentally toured with Hum for a time), Shiner, who also released an excellent "comeback" album last month, Schadenfreude (my review here), after an almost equally lengthy absence (19 years in their case). The lyrics tend to be sparse and dreamy. Of course, there is a lot of heaviness (borderline metal tones) throughout Inlet, but there are also gorgeous, gentle passages that occur over extended periods of some songs.
If I have one complaint, it's the drums. I'm not in love with the production of them (they sound too removed from the first song, in particular) and they are really straightforward. In particular, the opening track, "Waves," has an oddly stilted playing style. Bryan St. Pere has always had interesting and busy patterns in his work, but here he opts for very simple "rock" drums, which call to mind the 2000 album Jupiter by Cave-In, a band that has acknowledged their debt to Hum. It's a choice that doesn't detract too much from the album, but I'm really curious why that direction was taken.
Inlet is a grower, or should I say…it's a "shifter" (fittingly, the album's closer is even called "Shapeshifter"). What I mean by that is, past the initial excitement of hearing Matt Talbot and Tim Lash's trademark distorted wall of guitars kicking off the album opener "Waves", my first-time listen left me unsure how to feel. There were standout tracks ("In The Den", "The Summoning"), to be sure, and sections of particular songs captivated me as well. But as I listened to the album in full a few more times, I really began to appreciate it as a whole—less as a collection of songs than as an album, to be digested as such. I guess that has been the case for Hum albums all along, but very much for this one in particular.
It's interesting to note that this is the Hum album with the least songs (only eight), but is also their longest—in fact, every Hum album has progressively gotten longer. Inlet's length (55:31) is even listed on the cover, continuing the trend started on the band's 1995 major label breakthrough You'd Prefer An Astronaut. Naturally, this means that the songs are also long—only one track is the average-rock-song length of 4 minutes, three songs are 8 minutes or longer, and "Desert Rambler", the longest, clocks in at just over 9 minutes—and that very much works in their favor. Hum is really able to lock into a mood and a groove and hold you there.
The sound of Inlet fits right into Hum's discography—there aren't any big surprises, but neither does this feel like old hat. In that way, I'm reminded of a similar-sounding band (whose drummer Jason Gerken coincidentally toured with Hum for a time), Shiner, who also released an excellent "comeback" album last month, Schadenfreude (my review here), after an almost equally lengthy absence (19 years in their case). The lyrics tend to be sparse and dreamy. Of course, there is a lot of heaviness (borderline metal tones) throughout Inlet, but there are also gorgeous, gentle passages that occur over extended periods of some songs.
If I have one complaint, it's the drums. I'm not in love with the production of them (they sound too removed from the first song, in particular) and they are really straightforward. In particular, the opening track, "Waves," has an oddly stilted playing style. Bryan St. Pere has always had interesting and busy patterns in his work, but here he opts for very simple "rock" drums, which call to mind the 2000 album Jupiter by Cave-In, a band that has acknowledged their debt to Hum. It's a choice that doesn't detract too much from the album, but I'm really curious why that direction was taken.
Though I wasn't necessarily waiting for or desiring a new Hum LP, I can say that it arrives as the album I didn't know I needed and one that I keep thinking about. It's one of the year's best—I'm hooked.
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