Sunday, September 19, 2010

Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard (2010)

This is the second album by Syracuse's Ra Ra Riot.  They seem to have a large circle of friends in the indie rock music scene.  Just for instance, Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie mixed 9 of the 10 tracks on this album while the sole other track was mixed by Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend.  Batmanglij and Wes Miles (Ra Ra Riot's vocalist) have a side project together called Discovery which had a fun self-titled summer album last year.  I'm not entirely sure how this album stacks up against their first album The Rhumb Line as I have yet to listen but The Orchard is a fun mix of pop/rock while incorporating strings.  They are somewhat Arcade Fire-sounding (but to less effect) if I had to pick something near their sound.  I felt the first part of the album was good; it included current single "Boy" which has a steady if not distracting bass line.  After the first half of the album, I felt there was a lot of filler.  An interesting listen which I believe warrants a listen to their first album.  I have no doubt it will pop up on here at some point.

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