Review of Some Racing, Some Stopping Album by Headlights

Headlights
Some Racing, Some Stopping
Polyvinyl
Album Review

Headlights Some Racing, Some Stopping Album

There can be magic in the interplay of male and female lead vocals, and the opener on this album, Get Your Head Around It, uses the harmony and the tension to perfection, building the dynamic feel of this album in three sweet minutes that finish all too soon. Headlights are a band from Champaign, Illinois, and Some Racing, Some Stopping is their second album. From the opener onwards, the songs rarely break into rock, as the band explores gently strummed and plucked electric guitars over vibraphone and hushed vocals a la Joy Zipper. Headlights come off as a somewhat fey shimmery indie pop band - a softer, gentler Cardigans.

In fact, the band sound a lot more Scandinavian than they do American. The effect is pleasant - the kind of pleasant that Snow Patrol are trying to head for - but there isn't anything here to make anyone fall in love with a song, a tune or a turn of phrase. Its quietness, in the end, works against it - in being almost apologetic, it misses the kind of space that a proper Scandinavian indie pop band like The Shout Out Louds make so much fun.

3/5

Mike Rea


Site - http://www.myspace.com/headlights

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