CD of The Week

Remember Sports is back with their first album in five years and their first self-produced record since their debut Sunchokes. It’s hard to believe that nearly seven years have passed since we became familiar with the terms coronavirus and COVID, but those words were at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts and actions when Like A Stone was released. Unable to tour behind it and with the future in question, singer Carmen Perry took a job working with elementary school kids. In the album’s press release, she explains, “Helping them through COVID made me think constantly about my own childhood—memories came flooding back, and so did this intense desire to protect and nurture the little kid I used to be.”

But Perry continued to write. Much of the new album, The Refrigerator, was written during that time, and the songs carry poignant slice-of-life memories that may have seemed insignificant at the time but carry philosophical meaning through reflection. The first track written for the album was “Roadkill,” a song that connects a bombardment of random memories together, ultimately asking, “was I ever enough?” “Roadkill” ends a trilogy of songs that feel like a mini-concept album wedged in the middle of the record. The three tracks highlight the trending indie-Americana style embraced by bands like Wednesday, Ratboys, and Waxahatchee. That said, Remember Sports’ backbone has always been tied to the genre, bolstered by Perry’s twangy, breaking vocals. Bagpipes begin “Ghost,” with floating Katie Crutchfield-like vocals that morph into a foot stomping jamboree featuring a jangly guitar straight from Belly’s 90’s hit “Gepetto.” It has a country aesthetic without being a country song, as it finishes with fiddle played by Florry’s Will Henrickson. As the jug band party winds down, “Fridge” works like a party comedown as a sobering, light acoustic number with a natural singer-songwriter melody that honestly sounds a lot like “Roadkill.”

Remember Sports doesn’t let any one label define them. They say in the album’s press release, “We don’t know what genre we are. We just want everything to sound like us.” So, they picked some great styles to blend together. Both “Selfish” and “Cut Fruit” have a strong Speedy Ortiz vibe, with the former song featuring a very Pixies-ish guitar, and the latter ending with emotive, cathartic whining that really brings the heavier side of Wednesday to the table. “Bug” and “Yowie” are great slices of 90’s throwback pop punk pie. The grungy, driving three chords that make up “Thumb” were written from Perry’s juvenile perspective about being owed and knowing everything about life as a 15-year-old.

But the best song on the record is the opening track and single, “Across the Line.” It came out in September of last year and landed on my top songs of 2025 list, offering blissful hope of the full album to come. It is immediately accessible, with Perry’s twangy vocal matching the strumming acoustic and jangly guitar. Each verse and chorus kick in just a little harder, building up to a shredding hook that doubles down to end the song. Perry said at the time, "This song is about a dream I had where I blew up my life by doing whatever I wanted. I wrote it in the springtime, when the pink cherry blossom trees in Philly are in full bloom, so this song sounds like floating pink petals to me. It's about indulging your daydreams and following different paths of what your life could look like, if only in your mind." Perhaps you got to see Remember Sports play this past weekend at their very sold-out Kung Fu Necktie release show. If not, they’re swinging back around on May 7th when they play the First Unitarian Church with Cusp.