LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ Race Official Website) - When The Race released their debut album 'Be Your Alibi', the acclaim it met with was positive and across the board.
They were quickly tacked onto NME club tours, toured the UK and Europe with the likes of Cooper Temple Clause and Seafood, and invited to perform live from Maida Vale for Radio 1's Huw Stephens in a show celebrating the 10th anniversary of the band's highly distinguished record label Shifty Disco.
Two years on and 'In My Head It Works' is the band's triumphant return to the fray. Produced by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Idlewild) it packs all the stadium sized clout of The Killers alongside the subtlety and song writing prowess of The National or Arcade Fire.
On an album where driving guitars are pitched alongside sonic intricacies, chiming backdrops and earnest lyrics, the highs provided by former singles 'I Get It Wrong' and 'Rude Boy' are even surpassed by the yearning melancholy of 'Moorwood', the sweeping vocals on 'Killer', and the sensational climax of album closer 'Give Me Your Bible'.
Interestingly the album was completely funded by a stakeholder fund, put together by their label Shifty Disco and making use of the band's enormous fan base. Raising 25,000 to record and release the record, the label's boss Dave Newton was interviewed by NME (13/01/09) about the idea.
Turning to trans-Atlantic influences, the album judders and stumbles with visceral intensity (without shying away from that big pop hook) and an apparently effortless grace. It's this notion of grace that typifies The Race's musical output. Although there's an overt element of sweeping anthemia to everything they do, there's an undeniable attention to detail in everything from the fretwork to the sonics. 'In My Head It Works' is a fine return.
The Race 2009 UK tour dates in support of new album 'In My Head It Works':
(Dates and information subject to change.)
11th March - The Windmill, Brixton
21st March - The Fox, Lewisham
22nd March - Boiler Room, Guildford
24th March - Club Fandango @ Dublin Castle, London
25th March - Firestation, Windsor W/ BOXER REBELLION
27th March - The Square, Harlow W/ BOXER REBELLION
30th April - Scala, London W/ BOXER REBELLION
