Remember Sports' fourth long-player (counting two albums as
SPORTS),
Like a Stone returns the lineup from 2018's
Slow Buzz but ratchets up the tension in the pop-punk group's balance of bittersweet guitar pop and more urgent fare. A more collaborative album, it includes co-writes by various members, finds them swapping instruments on occasion, and reflects the cohesiveness of spending a couple years together on the road.
Like a Stone was engineered and mixed by
Carlos Hernandez and
Julian Fader of former tourmates NADINE, whose remaining member, Nadia Hulett, contributed some backing vocals. Emotive
Remember Sports leader Carmen Perry sounds like she's been taking in some
Stef Chura records in the interim, intensifying her punky yodel on tracks like raucous opener "Pinky Ring." It sets the stage with crashing cymbals, layers of fuzz, and an A-league guitar riff. At first relatively soft-spoken vocally, the song gradually adds mismatched backing vocals and screeching distortion to the repeated questions: "Wasn't I good to you? Wasn't I sweet to you?" Further instances of negative repetitive thoughts appear on other tracks, most notably on "Easy," whose high-speed churning dissipates in the second half to make room for a loping bass groove, shaker, and self-reproaching lyrics like "Do something different" and the oft-repeated "Do something right, just do anything right." Given the overall urgent tone of the album, the moody set takes unexpected turns toward midtempo twang on songs including the banjo-inflected "Eggs" and countrified closer "Odds Are," though these sounds won't be new to fans. After beginning with only voice and strummed acoustic guitar, the latter track soon adds the full band but remains in an intimate zone. Gentler entries include the reflective -- but noise-accumulating -- "Clock" and the outright ballad "Materialistic," which finds Perry stuffing down memories ("Archive the past with some sh*t that won't last you a lifetime"). Overall more ambitious, varied, and volatile than previous outings,
Like a Stone still delivers sharp hooks while more artfully articulating messy emotions. ~ Marcy Donelson