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Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard
dinsdag 03 mei 2011
Syracuse art-poppers need to let their instincts do the thinking.
Art-pop sorts are often accused of fumbling the ratio of intelligence to intuition, but this Syracuse outfit dodged such slap-downs on their 2008 debut album, The Rhumb Line, transcending their over-eagerness by buzzing like a baroque Vampire Weekend with a jones for the artier ends of 1980s British pop. On a more chamber-pop-styled second album, though, the balance proves trickier to sustain. Accomplished and impressive as it is, The Orchard equally often feels studied, its core parts fussed over at the expense of the lyrical and melodic shapes needed to energise them.
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Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard
maandag 30 augustus 2010
"A mother so cold and gray/And though she gives you one, she takes one away," sings Wes Miles in "Massachusetts," clearly referring to the ocean that claimed bandmate John Ryan Pike prior to Ra Ra Riot's 2008 debut. With dubby beats, choral vocals and signature strings, it's the most haunted song on the group's second LP, a set of genteel indie pop swinging between Dirty Projectors' ornate chamber music and the prep-school dance party of Vampire Weekend. The latter's Rostam Batmanglij adds bump to "Do You Remember," an abstract riff on Hall and Oates soul that, like the best tracks here, offers a leg up from mourning – into lust, love, life. If the textures still outshine the hooks, well, maybe that's fitting.
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