Race

Outsourcing your customer service abroad is not just the current business craze — the Race seems to have outsourced the production duties to upcoming electronic duo Telefon Tel Aviv, and with incredible results. The opener, "If You Can” burbles and caresses with Craig Klein’s voice coming strikingly close to Thom Yorke’s on occasion, but still being his own. The undulating guitars and harmonies on "Safe and Sound” make for wonderful indie rock moments, and on "Out Like a Lamb,” the crooning of such lines like "And this little piggy is in and out like a lamb” delights to no end. They even get a little dark and nasty with the short, driving "Rose,” which adds a little sex into the equation. While these songs might have stood on their own without the electronic touches of Telefon Tel Aviv, the album would be missing its integral ingredient. With indie rock getting some magical moments due to bands like the Wrens and the Decemberists, it would be a shame to see the Race to get away unnoticed as If You Can stirs both emotions and the heartstrings for those who like their epiphanies sinister and affecting.