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Sometimes a death of a person can change your life forever and perhaps could have altered the destiny of Ra Ra Riot. Having formed in 2006 they played live shows for some time gaining major recognition until tragedy struck. Original member and drummer John Ryan Pike died due to accidental drowning on June 1, 2007 and on their myspace it reads “we will always love and miss you, John. ” . Their songs seem to centre around the loss of one of their key members.

Death is a touchy subject. I hated writing that intro, I want to change it around constantly because it feels like it comes off…wrong or may turn people away because if you’re like me I hate being told sad stories. It just wouldn’t be a proper album review without mentioning death as it’s all embedded in the lyrics even if I’ll try to focus on the albums other qualities.

Ra Ra Riot is a 5 member band, 6 if you include Pike in spirit whom they still list on their band members as “co-writer / lyricist / vocalist, drummer, and lifelong inspiration”. They have a cellist and a violinist give off the orchestra feel. I guess these days it’s the trend to include as many instruments as possible, see Arcade Fire, Los Campesinos but hey I won’t fault them because it’s probably that much harder to record and if it sounds great who cares.

Hmm where to start with The Rhumb Line? While I figure out what to do with my writers block, The Rhumb Line according to Wikipedia is a line crossing all meridians at one point. Anyway, there are a ton of hidden nuggets here, like the track Dying is Fine, the title is meaningless and is more a play on language with the EE Cummings poem “Dying is Fine) but Death”. I’m not exactly sure what to make of Winter ’05, with the line “if you were here, winter wouldn’t pass quite slow” however the title seems to throw me off…it really could be about anyone.

Production wise, this album is better then great, it’s stellar. If any given moment in silence with the downtempos there’s more then meets the eye with a variety of variety of background music. They also take a more classical approach, where Los Campesinos is 7 raging instruments, Ra Ra Riot concentrates more of the beauty of music. With Wesley Miles vocals, he shows off a surprising range throughout. He doesn’t have the greatest vocals but his range is a pleasant surprise and it isn’t too shabby at the end of the day.

The ONLY thing is nitpick with this album, is the phrase most critics tend to throw out e.g. “not that creative” or “it’s been down before” and therefore not putting as much stock into it as one probably should. It’s a little hard to argue with that but one thing for sure though is Ra Ra Riot nails every song with a big hammer. I prefer their version of Suspended in Graffa to Kate Bush’s original though I expected no less with its inclusion as the penultimate track.

At the end of the day, I love the album to death. I am trying to get this blog more “credibility” but I just don’t feel right being harsh at this album at all. I guess if you think I’m being too much of a fanboy or I should be given flack for giving out so a high score, leave a comment and we’ll fight .

Rating: 5 out of 5
More then a tribute to their lost band member, Ra Ra Riot has released an amazing album that hasn’t yet gotten the press but is slowly racking up the rave reviews.

Dying Is Fine by Ra Ra Riot

Winter 05 by Ra Ra Riot

Buy this album at: CD UniverseRaInsoundRAAmazon

Tags: album