“It’s Raining Inside” by The Racer – A Song Review

     In 1967, The Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The album deserved and received praise. One of the few “knocks” on the album was that the special effects, the orchestral tracks, and the timing complexities made it doubtful that The Beatles could perform the songs in a live setting. Well, it didn’t matter, since they had no intention of ever touring as a band again.

      We aren’t predicting that The Racer is heading toward the release of an album that will have musical impact and commercial success of “Sgt. Pepper’s.” But with each new song release from The Racer, we find ourselves listening intently and appreciatively, while wondering whether the majesty of the track can be duplicated in a live setting. We hope so, since The Racer is currently our most commanding obsession. The list of bands that don’t receive the wide-spread following they deserve is too long already. And Indie bands aren’t likely to receive much recognition outside their region unless they can promote their music by touring.

      The latest song release from The Race is “It’s Raining Inside.” Again, the question arose – can they duplicate this in concert. Perhaps, since four of the five members are credited with having skills on the “keys.” The band from Monroe, NY, is comprised of Pete Marotta (vocals, keys), Mike Esserman (guitar, keys), Steve Kondracki (guitar, keys), Eric Sosler (bass, keys), and Mike Perri (drums, percussion). Despite the sonic capabilities from having multiple members on the keys, we grew more skeptical with each listen. Then, we read the promotional description, which indicated that our skepticism was flawed:

  "’It's Raining Inside’ was structured in the live setting of our practice space, but it didn't really come alive until we brought it into the studio and started to explore the sounds that we had previously only roughly sketched out. The backbone is a simple two chord piano part that keeps a steady pace throughout the song, which by itself with the melody makes for a beautiful song, but we wanted it to be more than that. We wanted it to be symphonic. So we explored a miriad of spacey keyboards, digital drums, and ethereal guitar and synth tones to develop more of an end of a movie soundtrack type of feeling. We also wanted to listeners to find something new on every listen, making a point to subtly add a multitude of layered vocals, vocal melodies, strings, and drums.  It was such a fun song to record because the musical possibilities seemed to be endless.  We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it."

      If there is justice in the Indie Universe, 2018 will be a breakout year for The Racer.

     “It’s Raining Inside” by The Racer 

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Website: http://www.theracermusic.com/

Bandcamp: https://theracer.bandcamp.com/track/its-raining-inside