15. Inlet / Hum

Hum performed its alternative hit “Stars” on MTV’s 120 Minutes when I was in high school. Unassuming in t-shirts, glasses, and cut-off jean shorts, the Champaign, Illinois band crunched and blazed for five amazing minutes.  It is still one of the all-time best television performances.  And the same no-frills attitude permeates Inlet, the band’s stellar fifth album.

Completely in character for the band's low-key mystery, Hum essentially disappeared for 22 years and then dropped Inlet without a word.  It is the softest heavy you will hear, all dark purple hues and blissfully melodic shoegaze that sounds exactly like the record’s cover: spacey, swirling, and not quite earthbound.

Like Slowdive’s recent return, Hum is not merely mining its ‘90s canon and searching for newfound relevancy.  Hum is here.  Its hypnotic guitars are immersive, wave after wave of driving fuzzy shred burrowing into your brain.  Its classic “loud-quiet-loud” dynamics are there at times, too, but its mostly a record of spiraling propulsion with Matt Talbot’s deadpan delivery and oddball lyrics in tow.

The technical precision of their four-piece chemistry and the luxuriousness of their dynamics make it difficult to pinpoint where this subgenre sits.  Post-hardcore, melodic metal, and shoegaze come close, but Inlet is a peculiar and pleasing foray for the band, like a small arm of the pulverizing sea claiming new territory.