RACES

RACES played at Cleveland's Beachland Tavern on their tour with Saint Motel, and they played good. We'd listened to their track Big Broom a lot, but hadn't fully delved into their album, Year of the Witch. That changed a lot after the show. Their vocals are basically flawless and the music that accompanies it is like small, contained explosives: it radiates from the center and just gets larger after it's played, like an instrumental collision game. Check this song out and you'll understand:

Even though they have softer songs, like 'Living Cruel and Rude', they have something really large about them. Followed up by 'Don't Be Cruel', it's like the tracks are playing entire lives inside of one album. The lyrics are well-written enough that they'd be good with almost any melody attached to them, but the way these songs are constructed and layered is really artistic. They're songs that are meant to have memories attached to them.

And the way the album ends is like it's all being ripped away, like those memories were stolen from you. So it's back to track #1 again.