HUGO RACE – FATALISTS
If Hugo Race lumps himself in with those on the title of his latest album, you can be sure he knew his fate long ago. Hugo Race linked up with Nick Cave in the first incarnation of The Bad Seeds. Although he lasted only one album before striking out on his own with The Wreckery – and then a solo career – the shadow cast over Race by constant comparisons to Cave has been considerable. That Race followed a similar path to Berlin and Europe certainly didn’t help. Not that Hugo Race has ever been a poor man’s Nick Cave, it’s just that almost every review he has ever generated brings up the obvious comparisons – treading the path of the dark, Gothic tinged blues that they both have (Race minus the heavy religious fascination). Fatalists sees Hugo in fine fettle indeed, his murky, slow, blues drawl verging toward Cohenesque at times; and in Too Many Zeros he has written a beautiful pop tune that deserves far more airplay than it will ever get. Will You Wake Up is surely on David Lynch’s iPod, and his rendition of the Leadbelly classic In The Pines drips with melancholy menace. Age is good in a wine I’m told, the passing years are proving to Hugo’s advantage too.
*** 1/2
