REVIEW: The Rat Race--Uncle Jim's Secret Garden
Blackdog
REVIEW
The Rat Race: Uncle Jim's Secret Garden
(Heat it--See it at http://www.theratrace.net.)
The Rat Race's sophomore album "Uncle Jim's Secret Garden" hits the
ground running and never looks back.
The journey begins from the moment you gaze at the cover and the
haunting visage of Dr. Mortimus Lyle greets you, staring a hole
through your very soul. By this point, you have already succumbed to
the dreamy and twisted world of The Rat Race. With this blistering
release, the band paints portraits of various members of a cynical
society which offers little hope of salvation or redemption. From the
pristine strings that lift the delicate "In The Next World" to the
swirls of lively guitar that anchor the thunderous "Planet Blue," the
band puts the pedal to the metal and forges ahead in giant strides,
following the path it delicately laid on its debut disc Alice.
Having earned a loyal following by grafting gut-wrenching guitar licks
over the muscle of a solid rhythm base that positively throbs with
intensity, the band takes its musical vision a step further with this
release. A prevalent angry explosiveness underlies a number of the
album's tracks, adding an ominous vibe previously unheard in the
band's work. "When The Morphine Comes" details the self destruction
of Jimmy, a hopeless drug abuser who only finds comfort in the painful
solitude of addiction. The depth of the song's content is conveyed
through the spine-tingling vocals shared with reverberating guitar
lines. At the other end of the spectrum, a seductive piano melody
that takes its time before burning with bottomless emotion makes up
the core of the lilting ballad "What About Jane." An insightful peek
into the world of a little girl who has seemingly lost her soul,
"Jane" festers with suppressed rage. "Mr. Mushroom" is a carefree
rhythmfest that slithers its way into the listener's psyche before
song's end. "Mushroom" is the gem among the offerings here with its
sunny, irresistible chorus that leaves the listener subconsciously
humming for hours afterwards. Peppered with a spicy horn section, the
song is already destined to be a Rat Race classic.
With this album the band shows it has become even more polished in its
musicianship, producing a clear and practiced sound, thanks to the
production team of Derek Welsh and Neal Avron. Throughout the
recording, Welsh never comes close to exhausting the seemingly
fathomless pool of mental images that he masterfully crafts into song.
Welsh doesn't need to scream to get his point across, but when the
emotion flows, his hypnotic howl speaks volumes, ripping the thick
wall of sound around him to shreds. A fine example of this tool is
demonstrated during the eerie break in the nightmarish "Strange
Dreams" where Welsh distorts his vocals as he takes on the persona of
Dr. Mortimus Lyle, the foreboding character from the disc's artwork.
The quiet fury of the character dominates the diatribe, sending
shivers of trepidation down the listener's spine, propelling him into
the nightmarish world which Welsh calls home.
With a proven track record as one of the south's premier rock and roll
bands, The Rat Race takes no prisoners both live and on record with
their version of balls-out, from-the-heart rock and roll. This is
proven without a doubt in the live recording of the band's anthem "Six
Feet Off The Ground" which caps off the staggering trip. Coming as a
shining beacon of light at the end of a dark and mysterious tunnel,
the swinging swagger of the longtime crowd favorite is brought to the
forefront of this irresistible version; leaving the band as well as
the audience in a sweaty, exhausted heap by song's end.
Visitors to "Uncle Jim's Secret Garden" be forewarned....as the
rocking title track points out you 're about to go on a trip where
you may very well lose your mind --but you won't care. That's because
you'll be too busy reveling in The Rat Race's well-balanced world of
dark apocalyptic visions and infectious blissfulness to pay attention
to anything else.
Say goodbye to the real world.
Welcome to The Rat Race.
(Heat it--See it at http://www.theratrace.net.)
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