Reg Vermue, who records music under the moniker of Gentleman Reg, has spent 2009 climbing out of the Canadian indie underground, and making himself noticed in the US. His full length album, Jet Black, was released earlier this year with some of the indie scene's heavy hitters making guest appearances. He continues the quest in his December release of the Heavy Head EP.
Unfortunately, Heavy Head comes off as just a little too packaged. It is clearly meant to be a miniature showcase of Gentleman Reg's work, and the end result feels more like a display case than a musical release. The EP begins with two covers, of Chris Isaac's “Wicked Game” and Stevie Nicks' “Wild Heart”. These are followed by two B-sides from the Jet Black album, one of them featuring Owen Pallett. The EP finishes off with two remixes from Jet Black, “We're in a Thunderstorm” and “How We Exit” both done by local Toronto acts Charlie Don't Surf and Jim Guthrie, respectively.
This perfectly balanced act fills the listener with a certain amount of confusion. Gentleman Reg leads us from one track to next with the enthusiasm of a traveling salesman. First showing off an admittedly impressive vocal talent with the two covers, and luring us in with the comfort of two songs well known enough to be comfortable, but not iconic enough to be cliché. Now that he's inside, and the demonstration is in full swing, it's time to bring out the original material. Again, it's not that the material itself is bad, in fact the songs are quite compelling, but just as we begin to be interested in the musical act we have expected, there is another change. Now the two remixes are trotted out, feeling all the time as if they are just there to remind us of Reg's Toronto scene origins and connections.
This EP is a reminder of the fact that the ability to put together an album of any kind requires more than the ability to sing, play, or even write songs. One must have a sense of how those songs can and should flow into each other. A sense that Reg Vermue demonstrated tolerably well on Jet Black. He and his producers seem to have lost that sense for Heavy Head, which can best be described as a commercial for Jet Black. However, as it was released nearly 10 months after the full length, it once again becomes senseless when viewed that way. It would have been a perfect preview for a US audience, and done much to whet our appetites for more. Instead, it simply induces a mildly nonplussed reaction and a response of “Do you have anything else? I've already heard this one.”
Track List:
1. Wicked Game (Chris Isaak Cover)
2. Wild Heart (Stevie Nicks Cover)
3. Take It All Back
4. Justified (feat. Owen Pallett)
5. We're In A Thunderstorm (Charlie Don't Surf Remix)
6. How We Exit (Jim Guthrie Remix)
