Reuben's long awaited first ever full length record, recorded between July and November 2003. The record was beset by problems even before it started - after three years of indie releases, major deal fall-throughs and constantly being asked when they were bringing out an album, the band decided to take the matter into their own hands and record the album with their friend and ex drummer Jason Wilcock at his home-made studio in Chobham.

The tracks:

No One Wins The War One of the band's favourite songs, a massive sprawling rock-pera full of odd timings and big chords. The band first played it on the mini tour they did with Vex Red and Biffy Clyro in October 2002.

Horrorshow Originally called 'Care bear', this was one of a number of songs written in between the band's tours with Mclusky and Hell is for Heroes at the end of 2002.

Stuck In My Throat The first single from the album. The version of this song that appears on the record was re-recorded with the rest of the tracks after the single version was finished before work on the album started, in order to meet the release deadline imposed by Integrity records.

Oh The Shame A jangly off-centre riff-athon, this track has been going down badly with live audiences since before the Mclusky tour in 2002.

Fall Of The Bastille A big long prog-athon inspired by At The Drive-In and written with the sole purpose of impressing local heroes Ursa, a huge influence on the band, this song was written at the same time as the band's now 'classic' b-side Wooden Boy, in early 2001 when Guy was filling in for Mark on drums.

Freddy Kreuger The band's most successful single, once described by Pink Floyd super-producer Bob Ezrin as 'a wonderful song that does not belong in this band'.

Tonight My Wife Is Your Wife A big live favourite, a song which the band had tried to record several times without success. The song title refers to an incident where the father of Andrewgrimmer (a friend of the band who can be seen singing in the Stux video) was offered the 'companionship' of another a man's wife for one evening at a business party. He then got too drunk to do anything about it.

Eating Only Apples A really old song, originally a b-side on the band's first single, included on the album simply because the band couldn't bring themselves to release their first album without it on the tracklisting.

Our Song A big bad metal song which was being written at the same time as Scared Of The Police just as Mark left the band. Considered for the opening track on the album.

Let's Stop Hanging Out A re-recording of the original version the band did with Paul Tipler - probably one of the band's most recognised songs.

Missing Fingers Another big prog-athon, written in the gap between tours that reflected a troubling time for singer Jamie.

Song For Saturday The only really soft song on the album, known only to those who had heard it on an XFM session the band had performed a year or so earlier.

Moving To Blackwater One of the new tracks on the album, which the band tried to keep under wraps until the release, written in the last few weeks before the recording process began.

Wrong And Sorry A big slow lumbering bastard, written at the same time as lots of other heavy songs like Missing Fingers and Stuck In My Throat.

Parties Break Hearts The oldest song on the album, dating back to times of old drummer Mark Lawton. It should really have been a single, it was just never the right track, but too good a song to be left off the band's debut.

Dusk The newest song on the album, essentially a big variation on the one riff that was only just finished in time to get demoed and thus considered for the album. The words mumbled at the end, 'one day this will all stop, and I won't have to run or rush and push or try, and I will give back everything I took, I will kiss everyone I love, and I will fall asleep and I won't wake up for weeks and weeks...' are a reflection on the exhaustion that the band felt in creating their first album, and in getting to where they were at the time.

The facts:

The main riff from Song For Saturday was made up on the spot by Jamie when the band's manager asked to hear their new song in soundcheck. The new song they were supposed to play was Eating Only Apples, but their manager was disappointed that the joke riff wasn't part of it.

Eating Only Apples was originally called 'Tonight My Wife Is Your Wife', but Andy Ross from Food records was so upset when the name of the song was changed to something more relevant to the subject matter, the band promised to call another song 'Tonight...'

The single version and the album version of Stuck In My Throat are exactly the same tempo and can be played in perfect unison side by side.

Only 1000 vinyl copies of the album were made, each one signed by all three members of the band whilst watching a live Metallica video at Guy's house.

Two tracks that were meant to be recorded for the album but weren't completed after the drums and bass were laid down were 'Approaching By Stealth' and a new version of 'Alpha Signal Seven'. The tracks have now been lost.

Also lost in the recording process was a potential b-side, provisionally entitled 'Hell', which was produced by slowing down the song 'Oh The Shame' to half speed from the string section onwards to hilarious effects.

The band had gone into the studio a few weeks previously and recorded every song they had (some 40 tracks) in two days for consideration for inclusion the album.

The album's 'hilarious' name came from a conversation with Caretaker bassist Seb Carey about palindromes.

Although the lyrics hadn't been finalised in early performances, the 'Hell Is For Heroes' line in No One Wins The War was actually written a few weeks before the two bands toured together. The line was subsequently changed to something new about HIFH on most nights of the tour, and in fact most nights after that tour.

All the strings on the album were recorded separately by the band's friend and Guy's former teacher Rupert Christie, who then sent the recordings on CD to the studio where they were integrated into the tracks.

The members of the album team took it in turns to buy a loaf of bread each day for use with the studio's most important piece of equipment - the toaster.

The line 'part hardy marty' in the lyrics to Parties Break Hearts was lifted from the last scene in the classic film SCROOGED, probably one of the best films ever made, starring mother-fuckin' ghost-bustin' Bill Murray.

The title 'Fall Of The Bastille' has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song. Although many other tracks on the album do appear to have cryptic and perhaps even irrelevant titles, they all do however have some kind of link, however tenuous, with the subject matter.

The first 3000 copies of the album went on sale with flawed covers - the inlay artwork didn't meet up in the middle, and they were printed on gloss instead of matt finish paper. These mistakes were corrected, and a serial number was added to the spine for all subsequent pressings.

The guitar tuning on most of the songs on the album can be achieved by tuning your guitar to simple drop-D tuning and then tuning each string down one note, so the strings go C# G# C# F# A# D#. Horrorshow, Freddy Kreuger and Oh The Shame are in the down-tuned equivalent of normal E tuning.

The artwork on all the singles released from 'Racecar was done at different times and put together by different people on each occasion, hence the slightly different style of each cover.

The photo featured on the cover of the album doesn't feature Guy at all, it features Jon, Jamie and their old drummer Mark Lawton. The photo was from an old shoot and had appeared previously (minus skellingtons) on the inlay of their first EP, Pilot.