Not just for fetishists anymore

Vinyl may or may not sound warmer, but the LP edition of Eric Bachmann's new solo disc To the Races, courtesy of microindie Foreign Leisure, is the preferred way to hear it.

The CD features the title track as a 2:08 instrumental featuring Devotchka's Tom Hagerman's violin, serving as a short segue between the album's most spiky, driving tracks, "Lonesome Warrior" and "Liars an Thieves".

The vinyl expands the track to over twice that length and adds vocals from Bachmann, and, on the chorus, Miranda Brown, where they sing in a killer melody:

Let's go down to the races/ and hide among the lonesome faces
Nameless fallen heroes come and gone
Stay all night wired and wasted/ til the moonlight melts away on
Heavy eyes as sorrow sings her song

The album's about down-and-out hiding and dislocation, but Bachmann's lyrics are mostly abstract and expansive. It's really only on this track, with its lyrics buried on a 1000-copy limited edition record, that we get the grounded, grungy imagery Bachmann so often used on Crooked Fingers releases, the Bukowski setting of a race track.

Vinyl or no, the album's highly recommended. "Little Bird" is an instant favorite.

Stream the Whole Album
MP3: Carrboro Woman
MP3: Lonesome Warrior
Purchase Vinyl