With Race Car Blues, Slowly Slowly give an expressive, deeply honest performance with tracks that engulf you with pleasing guitars and defining drums. 

As a whole, Race Car Blues is an open look at how to get from point A – a person you’re unhappy with – to point B – someone you’re happy to be. There are songs on here that resonate so strongly with anyone who has ever been displeased with themselves and are looking for a light in the darkness. Every track on this album has merit largely because of the lyrics.

Many of the songs have thankful undertones for a person, or people, that have positively impacted Slowly Slowly’s lives. Soil and Jellyfish do it with metaphorically lined lyrics and a guitar-led round sound. Where Jellyfish has mid-2000s pop-rock vibes and is goofy with lines like “I don’t even know if I’m real or if you are or if we’re just a simulation staged from a sports bar on Mars”, Soil suggests that humanity on Earth is trying to get by, but with special people at our sides, growing old isn’t so bad.

For something a little different, Superpowers is a delectable piece of storytelling. Even without the traditional song-writing format, frontman Ben Stewart conveys an important message: “you don’t need superpowers” to be happy. The acoustic emo ballad spotlights important questions to common wishes for those struggling in a calming, moving way that sets it apart from the heavier, upbeat songs on the record.

Other highlights on Race Car Blues include the duet with fellow Aussie, Bec Stevens, Safety Switch, and the fast-paced Creature Of Habit Pt. 2. Safety Switch successfully pulls off the back and forth that signals a good duet. Stewart and Steven’s voices play off each other in the verses and harmonize in a perfect blend during the choruses. It is lively and the kind of song you could scream the lyrics out to. Creature Of Habit Pt. 2 completes the band’s goal to build a record they would have loved in their youth. It has early-2000s pop-punk/rock vibes that, when listening with headphones, immerses you fully in the song.

Surprisingly, the closing track that shares its name with the album, Race Car Blues, is the only song that doesn’t completely fit. It feels bigger than any other song on the tracklist. However, it’s the last fifteen seconds of the song that solidify its position on the record. The bold lyricism followed by shaky, numbing breaths as if Stewart has expelled all the emotion he had left wraps up Race Car Blues (the record) with a final poignant bow.