REVIEW

“Some Racing, Some Stopping” – Headlights

Rating: 10/10

“Some Racing, Some Stopping,” the newest endeavor from Champaign’s beloved Headlights, stands alone as the defining album of the band’s genre. The only problem is figuring out what genre that is.

Throughout the 10-track album, Headlights explores, experiments with and masters a sound that is indefinable. Sure, the phrase “indie pop” gets thrown around a lot, but “Some Racing, Some Stopping” is a mosaic of musical sounds from the past, present and future. Somehow, Headlights seems to find the connection between all of them.

“Get Your Head Around It” starts the album off with Tristan Wraight’s warm and melancholic vocals and slowly transforms into dueling harmonies with keyboardist Erin Fein. The song’s abrupt ending sets the tone for the rest of the album in the sense that the listener doesn’t know what to expect next.

On “Cherry Tulips,” Fein’s soft-spoken-yet-intense vocals will make you immediately fall in love with her. The song has keyboard work that resembles something Ray Manzarek may have written in the ’60s, and is accompanied by a hook that becomes a bliss-inducing mantra; “I want the sea / I want the whole sea / For you and me.” The lyrics are so simple, but with Fein on vocals, they emanate so powerfully.

The title track is so unlike Headlights’s previous work, it’s hard to even fathom that they made it. “Some Racing, Some Stopping” deals with the concept that if “Your heart was on your sleeve / There’s no secrets you can keep.” Essentially, it’s a hypothetical premise that suggests if we listen to heartbeats, we could get a better understanding of the world. A transcendent message in an “indie pop” band is not something you hear everyday.

The song that seems to epitomize the aura of Headlights is “Towers.” It’s the last upbeat track before the album closes with the haunting “January,” and it exemplifies the full cohesiveness of Fein’s keyboard, Wraight’s guitar, steady percussion and even strings. The song builds and builds until a climax complete with Fein’s beautiful wordless singing.

Upon first listen, Headlights may come off as a pretentious group who thinks that “oohs” and “aahs” constitute as something artistic. However, once you fully delve into the heart and soul of this album, you realize Headlights isn’t pretentious whatsoever; it’s just that good.

For the 30 minutes which “Some Racing, Some Stopping” gracefully meanders to a somber end, there is not a single flaw. It’s an album that has a precise vision and the final product is perfection. Headlights has nurtured its sound and released its career-defining album.

The gifted trio has finally come of age, and all we can do is try and catch up.