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Sound Advice: Jet Black by Gentlemen Reg
Every Tuesday, Torontoist scours record store shelves in search of the city’s most notable new releases and brings you the best—or sometimes just the biggest—of what we’ve heard in Sound Advice.
It’s been five long years since Guelph native Reg Vermue, better known as Gentlemen Reg, put out an album of new material. Searching for a new home after the demise of hometown label Three Gut Records and a little thing called movie stardom (Reg had a cameo in 2006’s Shortbus) have kept him busy, and in late 2008 a collection of some of Reg’s previously released songs were compiled for re-release on Little Buildings, a teaser album to get the yet-unlearned ready for the new year.
Released today on Arts&Crafts, Reg’s third studio album, Jet Black, is a collection of songs with nowhere near the intensity the title might suggest. Moving to the major (sort of) label leagues doesn’t mean a big-budget change in Reg’s charmingly lo-fi, clean-sounding pop songs; radio-friendly (“Can’t Get It Back”), heartbreakingly epic (“Oh My God”), and a dose of near-perfect indie pop (“To Some It Comes Easy,” complete with girl-voice harmonies, swoon), Jet Black‘s only misfire is the quasi-electronica “We’re In a Thunderstorm,” the beat of which sounds cheap and distracting. Its hypnotic effect is better achieved with the plunking organs of album closer “Rudy.”
Reg’s voice can at first be somewhat off-putting, but all it needs is a little warming-up-to. Possibly his most appealing and enviable asset, the breathy, acrobatic, sometimes-falsetto is at its best when channelling Martin Tielli‘s staccato phrasing, securing Reg a spot alongside the former Rheostatic as one of the city’s most loveable—if not somewhat underrated—musical eccentrics. Hopefully you get a chance to squeeze yourself into Soundscapes tonight for the sure-to-be-packed in-store (572 College St., 6 p.m.), but if not, Gentlemen Reg plays the Horseshoe as part of Canadian Musicfest on March 12.