ALBUM REVIEW: Race Car Blues: Chapter 2 – Slowly Slowly
If you’d have told us ten years ago, when MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE were hanging up their boots in battery city and JIMMY EAT WORLD were hanging on to relevance for dear life pre-resurgence, that emo would be in such rude health in 2021 – well, we would’ve laughed. Yet, here we stand, with emo at the peak of its powers and primed and ready to sing out the soundtracks of angst-ridden teenagers the world over in the midst of a global pandemic. With 2020 bringing us career-bests from the likes of SPANISH LOVE SONGS, OWEN and HOT MULLIGAN, Aussie emo extraordinaire Ben Stewart’s passion project SLOWLY SLOWLY’s third album Race Car Blues largely went under the radar and underrated outside of their native home. Backed by the scene-conquering UNFD, SLOWLY SLOWLY are back with their race car blues once more for Chapter 2, an extended edition of the original package, plus twelve tracks cut from the same cloth.
In a world where streaming services allow you to serve as it’s slave to unlimited and unhinged amounts of music, like blood rushing feverishly through your veins, repackaging and reissuing an album seems somewhat redundant. Nine times out of ten, bonus tracks are simply that; they weren’t good enough to get off the cutting room floor the first time around, so what makes them any different now? In the case of SLOWLY SLOWLY, Chapter 2 is the exception to the rule, bringing their one-time B-sides to the fore and outrunning their predecessors.
The SPRINGSTEEN-referencing The Level quashes any questions you may have had about whether a modern-era FALL OUT BOY could’ve made it as an indie-pop supergroup with TURNOVER (the answer is absolutely). Comets and Zombies cooks up a cocktail of mid-ten’s emo-punk (think THE WONDER YEARS and MODERN BASEBALL) with the softer shades of latter-day BIFFY CLYRO. Set The Table sits itself in the middle of proceedings as your token ballad, bringing Stewart’s sheer song-writing charm to the – pardon the pun – table, as a brass band builds around his haunting laments. When you pit the likes of Suicidal Evangelist and Superpowers alongside 80% of Chapter 2, it’s a little like listening to The Masterplan by OASIS; you’re left wondering how the hell these diamonds slipped through the net.
Lyrically, there’s something to be said for the existential dread that drizzles like icing on the indie-emo soundscape slices of cake SLOWLY SLOWLY create. Stewart strips back the theatrics and finds comfort in the sound of his own situations, lending a refreshingly relatable edge to their new-found pop-friendly sensibilities. It says a lot to the testament of their ability to string the melancholic sadness of emo with the hook-friendly heights of indie-pop that they pull off the following as a sing-along on album highlight Learning Curve: “I just wish that I would die in my sleep so that you would have to go to my funeral and listen to them talk about me.”
On one hand, Chapter 2 shines a spotlight on the understated song-writing strengths SLOWLY SLOWLY possesses in it’s frontman. On the other, you can’t help but compare it to a hit-and-run cash-grab capitalising on material you may as well have released as it’s own album in order to plug its predecessor. All in all, SLOWLY SLOWLY continue to climb the ladder as emo’s best kept secret.
Rating: 7/10
Race Car Blues Chapter 2 is set for release February 26th via UNFD.
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