The Clarks; Race the Ghost; Ricky Stein

(Published with the Pitt News.)

Race The Ghost
My First Crown
C+

Race The Ghost is anything but quiet – their sound is a loud, fast beat with a strong guitar leading them through every song that calls the album home.

The pop band might as well be a next door neighbor to a rock genre, because any little push would change its definition.

This album is the result of years of musical performance by its band, and it shows in their eight track release – even if the vocalist’s voice is a little too high pitched for all ears to tolerate. This basically makes Race The Ghost a family member of The Fray: a little bit faster and a little bit louder, but with a striking resemblance in the fact that the voice simply does not go with the music and is barely discernible half the time.

Other reviewers have hailed Race The Ghost; let’s just rest with the statement that it requires a certain taste.

*

Ricky Stein
Crazy Days
B

Is there a new Bruce Springsteen in town?

Maybe. Rookie hometown hero Ricky Stein’s debut album reveals that he may just be the next cart0crushing blue-collar hero.

Stein’s album, Crazy Days, has a sweet beat, with a perfect vocal pitch to match his old fashioned rock style.

Passion radiates from his voice on every note. With a musical genre label like “Americana” he’s bound to feel welcome among small town locals across the country.

It doesn’t matter whether he’s performing with his band or sitting alone with just his voice and an acoustic guitar to get through his performance. He’s got the charismas and talent to make it a show to enjoy.

“Is it love or is it magic? I guess it’s one and the same,” claims the opening chorus of Stein’s very first song. And this album very easily qualifies as a little bit of both with its good old day feel.

*

The Clarks
Restless Days
A-

Pittsburgh’s favorite hometown band, The Clarks, ahs done it again with its newest album, Restless Days.

This cream of the crop album is fast, upbeat and catchy, and has such a talented line up that it seems as if very little technology has been used to clean their songs up. The instruments and lyrics meld together effortlessly.

“Restless Days” has a solid tempo that stays consistent through each song once it begins.

That steady tempo holds out through the entire album, whether the lovely song is about catching the “Midnight Rose” instead of those old trains, or whether it picks up the pace to speed up the album.

But every song doesn’t sound the same as it walks its way through the friendships, lovers, faith, simple associations, and the strangers in ones life.

The Clarks runs its paces through all of its instruments, varying the level of rocking with the harmonics that make music so sweet.

Listeners will, at the minimum, find themselves slowing down to listen to the song before reaching their destination.