3 out of 5

Label: Ace Fu

Producer: Runner and the Themodynamics

Are we agreed that unless it’s part of your shtick, referring to your band in the third person is an automatic dock to the rating?  Yes, good?  Okay.  ‘Cause the Runners are going for the whole no-bones rock format, songs about chicks and dudes, and then in song two they talk about ‘the runners doing it right.’  Yeah, okay.

But it does sort of capture what’s off about the group.  Because these are good rock songs.  Great riffs, opener ‘So Sorry’ seeming like a great pitch for the album, a toe-tapping groove with everyone playing in sync and yet mixing it up with quick-handed skins slapping and well-placed guitar and bass noodling, the lyrics a cut and dry ‘So sorry I fucked up your life’ getting right to the point.  I thought of Superdrag dragged through the NY scene.  And yet as the album proceeds, despite some nice production touches – bells, keys, all tastefully mixed in – I never quite felt it the way I would a Superdrag album.  There’s something empty about Runners, and I go back to that name-dropping.  It’s like someone reading from a playbook on how to make a rock album.  That’s not to dismiss that these tracks are catchy, but the lyrics tread just South of vague to give them a modicum of distinction from pointless, but they’re far from inspired, and vocalist Marc Pinansky’s half-sung delivery seems to attest to that, like, again, he’s just reading off a lyric sheet.  And everything’s played to perfection, no one stepping off beat, and the recording gives us that tasteful bump of drums, and bassist Mike Oor gets some spotlight and drummer Roger Knight gets some spotlight… did I mention I’m in a band called ‘Runners?’  There’s undoubtedly a desire to be on stage that motivates nigh every musician, but you know how some kids are just born into a business, and they become doctors or lawyers or McDonalds without really questioning if it’s what they want to do?  That’s how the Runners feel.  They do it really well, but I can walk away and not miss it because there’s no real connection formed.

Undoubtedly good live, which is how they made their impression, natch.