The Race formed in Reading in 2004, built a genuine reputation through the mid-2000s – two albums on Shifty Disco, BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale sessions with Huw Stephens, BBC 6Music and XFM sessions, Reading Festival, Truck Festival – and then went quiet for sixteen years. Between them, the members had ten children. “Best Is Yet To Come” is the first single from their forthcoming FAMILY EP, a four-track project rolling out between May and October 2026, recorded and produced entirely by the band in their garage studio. NME once called them something that “could really do something.” Turns out they just needed a decade and a half of life to do it with.
The individuals’ personal stories coming through the music are what this genre has always been about – it was never about re-inventing sounds. These songs are like modern folk songs, just some friends expressing themselves. The intention behind every note is communicated brilliantly, just effortless self-expression. This isn’t music made for the sake of fame or any superficial reason. This music is made out of the necessity to express oneself and to connect to others, to say: we’re here, and this is our experience.
“Best Is Yet To Come” is specifically about watching the people you love navigate the inevitable peaks and troughs of life and quietly wishing them through to calmer ground. It’s a generous emotional premise for a comeback single, outward-facing rather than self-congratulatory, which tells you something about where the band’s heads are at after sixteen years. The twin guitars and patient builds carry the weight of everything that went unplayed in the interim, and the cathartic lift when the hook arrives feels genuinely earned. Three more singles still to come before the year is out – the FAMILY EP is worth following in full.
