Album Review

The Race – In My Head It Works

• 1st Mar 2009

Opening track ‘Begin’ (I was disappointed to find that the closing track wasn’t called ‘End’) sets a beautifully melodic and gradual introduction to ‘In My Head It Works’; the second long player release from alternative Reading band The Race. The short and sweet introduction the band’s latest work almost immediately powers though into the poppy ‘I Get It Wrong’ – a track that wouldn’t sound out of place on daytime radio. Unfortunately, from here on in, ‘In My Head It Works’ desperately fails to keep your attention. Despite the ten additional well written, performed and produced tracks, the album is just not all that memorable. If each individual track were to be released a single, then I imagine that The Race would fare slightly better, although that is not the case so they all tend to blur and smudge into one long track. The main factor for this is a lack of variety within the song writing – subdued verses, uplifting choruses and a general boost towards the end of the song finished off with the exact same guitar tone and vocal delivery on every track.

With the exception of the chaotic sounds and excitement of ‘Summer’ and the sheer urgency and thrill of ‘Racing Car Game’ partly thanks to its highly dynamic intro and outro, ‘In My Head It Works’ is a criminal waste of talent. The Race have proved that they know how to write captivating, epic, atmospheric and goosebump-enducing songs, it’s just a great shame that they can’t all be enjoyed in one sitting.