GENTLEMAN REG – JET BLACK
Before his move to the major-minor label Arts & Crafts, Reg Vermue put out three Canada-only albums, worked with Sufjan Stevens, Final Fantasy, Broken Social Scene, played on and off with the Hidden Cameras, and cameoed in Shortbus – a veritable indie renaissance man. Instinctively, I’m wary of such a CV: is Reg a real talent, or a M.O.R. scenester, riding a wave of dropped names? The answer is, perhaps not surprisingly, somewhere in-between. Jet Black is an album of raucous guitar pop (killer single You Can’t Get it Back, groovy opener Coastline), interspersed with downbeat moments, Elliott Smith-styled introspective lyricism and enough beautiful, breathy vocals to slay a school-bus-full of troubled teenagers. To Some It Comes Easy has all the energy of a 90’s guitar jam, with a beautiful group-sing hook, but the climax never materializes. Similarly of the album’s breakout dance moment, We’re in a Thunderstorm: a stunning male vocal, delivered with a sexy campness only rivaled by Patrick Wolf, but in the service of a static, go-nowhere backing track. These moments of drag and sag are the worst moments of self-indulgence – although the keyboard jam on Everlong comes close – it’s excusable (nay, exciting!) when brilliant, and inexcusable when it’s anything else. Jet Black opens right, and cements Reg’s talent as an original songwriter and a brilliant singer – it’s a shame so much of the rest is so average.
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