With its acrobatic guitar work, deeply self-referential lyrics and off-the-walls energy, A Portrait of an Ugly Man calls back to the dextrous, eccentric sound that helped the band – brothers Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen (bass) Paulson – explode into the underground with their 2017 debut.
A slice of tremolo-heavy classic rock filtered through the lens of the gunslinging American West, Remo Drive’s third album, A Portrait of an Ugly Man finds them truly in their element – both physically and sonically. Whereas the Paulsons filtered their buoyant songwriting through the concise lens of storytellers like Bruce Springsteen and The Killers on Natural, Everyday Degradation, A Portrait of an Ugly Man is more spontaneous, bolstered by the same charm and levity that made 2017’s Greatest Hits such an underground favourite.