Kris Racer
Submitted by PRECIOUS YAMAGUCHI on Sat, 2005-01-01 08:00.
It's amazing, the creativity that comes from thick-aired, dimly lit airport terminals, followed by the stale restlessness one gets while sitting in an airplane. Kris Racer, with his debut album Time Spent On Airplanes, is proof that moments spent between destinations and living out of a suitcase is not a total waste of time, but a way of getting somewhere--both literally and figuratively--in terms of his music career. With songs like "Hudson River Parkway" and "Coffee & Amphetamines," reflections of thoughts like "I've never shown mental stability, after all these years of falling down, I am proud I have gotten this far" pour out and create an uninhibited self-disclosure. Though lyrics such as these may sound like he hails from a city like Los Angeles or New York, where jaded musicians seem to be made, he is actually a Midwestern native who was formerly in a Cleveland punk/pop band called Tagline. His music now is a bit different: this album is coffeehouse cool, with a sound that grazes the style of Jack Johnson; maybe it's his glasses and hip-geek look that is reminiscent of Weezer during their first album. This album is heavy in lyrics, light on production, and has just the right balance to be a road trip soundtrack.
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