The morning of June 23, my phone was blowing up with messages from friends: “Have you heard it?” “It’s so good!” “It’s perfect.” “It” is Hum’s Inlet, the biggest surprise album-drop in indie rock since My Bloody Valentine’s m b v in 2013, and the first new material from the Champaign, Ill., space-rockers since 1998’s Downward Is Heavenward. Reunion albums from ’90s bands can be dicey propositions — for every Slowdive, there are a dozen more Indie Cindys — but Inlet is a masterpiece. The sonic hallmarks that made Hum’s “Stars” an alt-rock classic in ’95 are all there — monumental walls of down-tuned guitars, drums that hit hard yet swing gracefully — but Inlet also shows how they’ve evolved. (Twenty-two years is a long time to accumulate new knowledge and gear, after all.) The hourlong, eight-song odyssey is best experienced in one sitting — and played as loudly as possible — but the tunes stand on their own, too. The explosive opener “Waves” makes it instantly clear that our heroes have returned, while “Desert Rambler” and “Shapeshifter” are epic, meditative headbangers to get lost in. Then there’s “Step Into You,” the catchiest song Hum has ever committed to tape, and a perfect jumping-off point for first-time listeners of any age. Rock records this substantial are rarely made these days, so Inlet feels like manna from heaven right now. When Hum came through Nashville on an August 2015 reunion run, I wrote a love letter to them in the Scene declaring them my favorite band. My drop-D heart has never beat louder than it’s beating now. Hum’s Inlet can be streamed on Spotify and Bandcamp, and is available on LP and CD via Polyvinyl Records. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN
Listen to the New Hum Album
