Tag: The Rhumb Line

Ra Ra Riot – The Orchard

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Rating: ★★☆☆☆

It hasn’t been too long since Ra Ra Riot released The Rhumb Line, but you’ll notice a few sonic shifts when taking on their new record, The Orchard.  While their first album featured a lot of dark imagery furthered by the string arrangements, this new record doesn’t seem as dense, and the clarity of the vocals, while impressive, sort of seems forced.

While “The Orchard” isn’t the longest song on this latest effort, it definitely drags on.  Vocals and strings are the predominant players here, but the song doesn’t really show a lot of movement, and it almost has the feeling of a spoken-word piece.  But, if you’re looking for the bubbling bass from their debut, it does exist , such as on the following track, “Boy.” That being said, there’s not a lot else that comes to the forefront of the song, and again you find the band struggling to establish themselves with any sort of distinct sound.

It’s clear that Ra Ra Riot are in a different place entirely on The Orchard, and you’ll discover that sentiment just listening to the production of the record.  Vocals are dominating throughout, and the arrangements are a lot more sparse, allowing a lot of the instrumentation to blossom within the songs themselves.  The problem with this approach is that it sort of removes the sense of beautiful chaos that earned the band a lot of early praise after the release of their first EP.  On “Foolish,” for instance, there are spots where you could say a lot is going on, with strings, drums, etc, but thrown altogether, they just don’t have the same punch that the group once championed.   Even the pace of the majority of the tracks seems far removed from where the band left off, and this creates the sensation that a lot of these tracks are forced into completion.

One entry that does stand out is remarkable is “You and I Know,” which features vocals from cellist Alexandra.  It’s a nice change in the overall feeling of The Orchard, but it’s far too polished.  The band’s web site had a look at some raw recordings of the track, and they evoked a stronger emotion upon listening to that recording, as opposed to the one that makes the final cut of the record.  Therein lives the great problem of this record as a whole.  It’s too clean, and too earnest to please.  The Boy EP had a great song titled “Saccharin and the War” that gave hints at bigger things going on for the band, but it didn’t make the cut.  Whether Ra Ra Riot felt it didn’t fit the cohesiveness of this collection of songs is no matter, as it’s absence, and songs more in that manner definitely leave much to be desired here.  In all honesty, none of the record is horrible, none of it is bad, its just, well, there.  That’s sort of where this record lives, in a place where it was unable to distinguish itself from the other music of like-minded bands out there today.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/02-Boy.mp3]

Download: Ra Ra Riot – Boy [MP3]

Ra Ra Riot @ The Parish – 10/3

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The crooning pop of Ra Ra Riot will make its way into Austin this Friday, twice!  They will be playing a free show at our favorite record store, Waterloo Records at 5 PM.  Then they’ll graba bite to eat before heading on over to the Parish to close out the evening.  If you’re not sure about whether you want to go, just check out our review of the latest album The Rhumb Line .

You can find yourself tickets for the show at Frontgate Tickets.

Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Much has been made of Ra Ra Riot‘s history as a band, which, though interesting and heartbreaking, doesn’t really do a sufficient job of discussing the band’s current output. The Rhumb Line is their first full length album, although the band has been around for quite sometime, with nothing more than an EP to their name. And, I suppose that we could be disappointed that only 6 of the album’s 10 songs are new, but that would take away from the stunning debut they have given us.

The album begins with “Ghost Under Rocks,” a tune driven by the orchestral cello and violin work that the band uses to create the darker tones of their pop numbers.  The blistering drum work on the opener adds just as much power, making a mark on the listener almost immediately.  They follow this up with another song off their EP, “Each Year,” but it’s a driving song, with the guitar carrying the song, and those listening, along.

They do their best Vampire Weekend impression with “St. Peter’s Day Festival,” but the use of orchestral pieces gives the song a little bit more splendor, making it a song that won’t wear you down over time.  Ra Ra Riot slows it down a bit for us with “Winter 05,” a song that relies musically on violin and cello.  It’s a beautiful song, and one that gives you a break from the fast pace of the album.

Then its back to the EP songs, and two of the best songs that band has written up to this point.  “Dying is Fine” is truly one of my favorite songs of the year.  The music makes you tap your toes, while the vocals couldn’t possibly be better.  “Can You Tell” starts off slowly, with reference to a long lost lover, before it bumps up the pace.  This might be the peak moment of the album.

In “Too Too Fast” we find the band relying upon synthesizers to hold the aesthetic of this song.  The female vocal accompaniment during the chorus is quite fitting, and it pushes the song further into the music of the past.  Still, the song has a certain freshness that tells the listener to keep on going.

However, the album kind off falls off from here.  “Oh La” just doesn’t have the same impact on the listener as the previous numbers.  It’s slower, and it kind of throws off the pace of the album.  From here the band jumps to a Kate Bush cover, which is good, but it takes the number of new original songs down to 5. “Run My Mouth” marks the point where the album kind of loses its luster.  The final song just doesn’t add much to the overall feel of the album; it’s almost as if it could have been left off.

Now that the album is over, you kind of feel a little let down.  It didn’t end as well as it started off, which disappoints.  Still, the first seven songs on this album are ridiculously good, even the ones that were revisited from the past.  It’s worthy of repeated listens, and it’s worthy of being in your collection.