Having scored their fluke hit with
"Stars,"
Hum
hunkered down and created a follow-up album that went nowhere, leading to the band's splintering. An unfortunate result all around, because, arguably,
Downward Is Heavenward
isn't merely the group's best album, but a lost classic of '90s
rock
, period. Taking their sense of the epic and the equal but opposite sense of the tender and personal to striking new heights, the quartet finds a remarkable balance throughout between world-shaking arrangements and gentle connection. Opening track
"Isle of the Cheetah"
sets the tone,
Matt Talbott
's singing the still center of a just wonderful, huge
-as-symphonic-burst song. Other individual highlights abound:
"Ms. Lazarus,"
which turns from a tight little
post-punk
skip into a tempo-shift-arrested rock-out,
"Afternoon with the Axolotls,"
and its amazing balance between
Talbott
's delivery and skyscrapers of feedback and drums, the squirrelly interaction between the watery guitars and
on the verses of
"Dreamboat"
before another bomb blast. What's especially nice on
is that, while sounding as detailed and precise as possible, even when completely letting go, there's none of the
Brian Wilson
fetish that ultimately overdetermined so much end of the millennium
with indie leanings. No
orchestral
touches, horns, or the like -- keyboards, yes -- but otherwise the band relies on the traditional
lineup to come up with its results. Ironically there are a couple of hints of bands inspired by
the Beach Boys
--
"If You Are to Bloom"
has the same feel of 1992-era
Boo Radleys
-- while in turns pointing the way to the work of
12 Rods
. But ultimately, this is
as
, catalyzing the calmest of singing and delivery via some of the biggest sounding music around. All this and no cheap attempt to rewrite
"Stars"
either --
, clearly, had something special. ~ Ned Raggett