Album Review: Slowly Slowly - Race Car Blues

Melbourne four-piece Slowly Slowly have held nothing back, musically and emotionally, in the 12 tracks that make up their third album, Race Car Blues.

Classic pop-punk stylings arise with crisp and simple drum beats during Safety Switch and a defiant chorus during You Are Bigger Than This Town, which is sure to have fans screaming in unison during shows. It’s like the noise has been turned up a notch – the guitars are rougher, the drums are punchier and the vocals hit harder throughout. Yet it's the lyrical content that really shines through. Singer Ben Stewart’s aptitude for poetry is phenomenal. From the simple, “I don’t mind being soil/Decomposing slowly,” during Soil to the odd and quirky verses of hit single Jellyfish (“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”), the thematics behind each song are solidly structured and conceptually brilliant.

The emotively charged Suicidal Evangelist is a heavy tear-jerker with its raw, impassioned and touching poetry alongside a floating melody. Similarly, Superpowers logistically breaks down common superpowers before ending with the sentiment, “I don’t want a superpower, I just wanna survive." From soul-searching to find one’s purpose in life to navigating self-doubt, the album floats between triumphant moments of inspiration and slower, intimate moments of honest reflection all the while maintaining the poetic, rough-and-ready energy Slowly Slowly are loved for.

As Race Car Blues ends with Stewart's shaky breathing, it’s as if the last 40 minutes were a cathartic release of emotional energy leaving us tired but free.