Ra Ra Riot – The Orchard (Brine and Barnacles)
4/5
By: Josh Daniel
The second, more polished album from New York’s Ra Ra Riot was produced by Chris Walla (of Death Cab For Cutie) with a little help from Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend). With Miles' high pitch, staccato, breathless vocals and a delicate, calmer version of Vampire Weekend or Field Music's skittish pop underneath, Ra Ra Riot have here created a surprisingly complete and warm environment in which to immerse yourself.
Opener 'The Orchard' captures with stabbing, Cloudbursting style violin thrusts and a rolling bassline straight from Serge Gainsbourg. First lyric "We both had doubts..." suggests a deeper struggle with the overarching style of this album, a contrast from their earlier material. It immediately casts an eerie mood over the record, echoing the cover art's non-descript suburban house glowing in the twilight, seemingly alone with little sign of life.
At first there doesn't appear to be anything special about the myriad guitar lines, but it's their reticence to strum, and the guitar's placing amongst the other flutters of sound that endears most. Having six members at their disposal you might expect RRR to make more noise than they actually do... With this considered approach to the songwriting, they allow for motifs and trills to sneak in, repeat themselves and eventually, naturally, unfurl. Quite often they breezily return to just one or two instruments with a swift diminuendo before a stuttered yelp from Miles' drags you back, head bobbing, into the heart of the song.
'Shadowcasting' and 'Do You Remember' could be Field Music b-sides, but with a sedate 4/4 rather than a jocular 5/6/7/8/9 and as the album progresses, RRR sometimes pick up the pace as if they've been conserving energy all along. Where their contemporaries might put their foot down, RRR drive along whilst taking in the scenery, stopping for a picnic, allowing time and space for reflection.
Although the songs have a certain haunting aesthetic they don't quite constitute a great album. However, there's little doubt to their progression since first album The Rhumb Line, as they've closed ranks and ditched the scruffy nature of earlier, albeit enjoyable songs like 'Dying is Fine' for the hook laden, adult pop of 'Shadowcasting' and it's cleaner, more streamlined sound. Hopefully they can find a niche somewhere between the brash energy of Yeasayer or Vampire Weekend and the assuredness of, well, I don't know, Take That? A little gem of an LP from a developing force.
Artists in this article: Ra Ra Riot
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