Remember Sports: The Refrigerator

I keep finding myself with these women-led indie rock bands that feature more twang than they probably should. After all, Remember Sports are from Philly and not Nashville. Or wherever twang comes from. It’s not as if I seek these things out, but perhaps they seek me out. There’s something that warms the tone and rounds off the sharp edges of the music when someone feels homey. Even if their band name is as innocuous as this one. Thing is, they all met at Kenyon College, which is in Ohio. A state with a surprising amount of twang if you hit the right parts. Sorry, not their parts. Parts of the state. Just wanted to make that clear.

Despite all that, this album is hardly an alt-country banger or anything. It’s definitely an indie rock record, verging on pop at times and almost verging into light punk in others. At least through the first three tracks. And, honestly, it’s a pretty great way to start off a record. Track one, “Across the Line,” giving classic indie pop vibes (and that deeper twang I mentioned). Followed by “Bug,” a peppier mid-90s fuzz college rock, hook-laden Pixies romp with a great punk-adjacent energy. And then “Thumb,” which continues the melodic, speedier tempos and guitar squeals. I have no idea if they intentionally named two songs in a row after a Dinosaur Jr. album and song, respectively, but there are no coincidences in music. The fourth track, “Selfish,” leans into like an almost druggy, but sparkling late 90s harmonized indie pop ditty, which is miraculously pleasant and filled with harmonics and a great hook. Not quite as rockin’ per se, but they do stomp the fuzz pedal — or some sort of distortion — toward the end to kick it into gear. It’s a top notch pop song.

I will spare you the track-by-track breakdown, but lead singer Carmen Perry really sets the mood. One that oscillates between more rock stuff up front, more wistful, nostalgic crooning in the middle and definitely a dose of 90s college rock cutesy growl (for lack of a better term) here and there. It all kind of hangs together genre-wise because of her delivery and the very even production that undergirds the vocal-forward sound. It’s a bold choice, but one that isn’t done enough in the 2020s. And it works very well for her and the band. They did record at Steve Albini’s studio just after he died, self-producing the album, but perhaps they had the spirit of the man flowing through them. The album does downshift a bit toward the end — despite naming their final track after the classic grunge album, Nevermind — but it retains some of the energy even without the BPMs. It’s overall a decent record and one that can sustain multiple listens without tiring of the band’s tunefulness and ability to write really catchy melodies.