28-01-2013, 13:47
online listen
seems I can't escape the synths
synth pop heavy here but they call them alternative
nothing I liked
1.3 from me and a converted 2.7 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - Beta Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0MREANxNac
released Jan 22nd, 2013
![[Image: 41e1c0enRiL._SL500_AA280_.jpg]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41e1c0enRiL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Bio - from allmusic
Combining indie rock with chamber pop flourishes (courtesy of a small string section), Ra Ra
Riot formed while the band's six members were attending college in Syracuse, New York. Milo
Bonacci (guitar), Alexandra Lawn (cello), Wesley Miles (keyboard/vocals), John Pike (drums),
Mathieu Santos (bass), and Rebecca Zeller (violin) first came together in January 2006,
creating an eclectic sound that allowed them to play alongside the Horrors, Bow Wow Wow, and
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin within a year of the band's formation. After pulling up
stakes and relocating to New York City, the band recorded a self-titled EP and prepared to
release it during the summer of 2007. That June, however, Pike died after disappearing one
night from a party in Fairhaven, Rhode Island. His body was later found in nearby Buzzard's
Bay. Several weeks later, the mourning bandmates issued a statement confirming their
continuation as a band.
Ra Ra Riot joined the roster at V2 Records later that year before switching their American
operations to Barsuk Records, who signed them in May 2008 and released their debut album, The
Rhumb Line, in August. Reviews were positive, and Ra Ra Riot spent the better part of a year on
the road, where they toured with bands like Death Cab for Cutie and headlined their own
performances as well. During a lull in their schedule, the musicians decamped to a peach
orchard in upstate New York, where they spent several weeks writing songs and recording demos.
Those songs eventually made their way onto The Orchard, Ra Ra Riot's second album, which
appeared in August 2010. In 2012, Lawn announced she had left the band. The band did not
replace her and began work on new material. In 2013, Ra Ra Riot delivered its third studio
album, the more synth pop-inflected Beta Love.
Album Review - from allmusic
review
[-]by Matt Collar
Ra Ra Riot's third studio album, 2013's Beta Love, finds the Syracuse outfit delivering an
electronic, keyboard-heavy effort that still retains much of the melodic songcraft and
orchestral influence that marked their previous work. Having parted ways with cellist Alexandra
Lawn in 2012, Ra Ra Riot were surely at a creative crossroads during the recording of Beta
Love. However, the remaining bandmembers (vocalist Wes Miles, violinist Rebecca Zeller,
guitarist Milo Bonacci, and bassist Mathieu Santos) did not replace Lawn and instead traveled
to the warmer climes of Missouri to work with producer/engineer Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello,
Modest Mouse) and a handful of guest musicians on crafting a more experimental, synthesizer-
based sound. With lyrics and songs inspired by a variety of future-looking sources including
author/keyboard inventor Ray Kurzweil and writer William Gibson, Ra Ra Riot employed various
synthesizers to complement their already innovative mix of rock and classical instrumentation.
The result is that Beta Love, while clearly a move away from the precise chamber pop of 2010's
Orchard, is still an immediately infectious, harmonically intriguing album that subtly
incorporates Zeller's classically trained violin chops into an even more unified band sound. In
fact, Zeller's shiny violin is employed so deftly here, often in tandem with the synth lines,
that the focus ends up being more on the overall sound of a song than on any one aspect of an
arrangement. Also still a focal point here is Miles' angelic, resonant tenor croon that,
matched with lyrics that delve into alienation in a modern world, robot love, and the eternal
question of whether or not Androids dream, works as an emotional core for the album. He coos on
the ebullient closing track, "I Shut Off," "Who wants a human love? A Death trap? A Suicide
club? I do... I do..." While there is definitely an atmospheric, introspective, and somewhat
experimental quality to many of the songs on Beta Love, as on the yearning, lyrical ballad
"When I Dream," it is undeniably a dance album. Cuts like the bouncy lead-off "Dance with Me"
and the positively euphoric title track are wide-eyed, neon-colored anthems that seem to find
the perfect balance between Michael Jackson's "Rock with You," ELO's "All Around the World,"
and Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend." Which isnât to say that the album sounds exactly like the
work of any one of these artists in particular, but Beta Love does fit nicely alongside works
by such similarly inclined contemporaries as Minus the Bear and Young Galaxy; bands who've
explored synthesizers and '80s New Wave and adult contemporary as a way to expand their sonic
palette. Ultimately though, whether robotic or human, binary or organic, it is Ra Ra Riot's
gift for addictive, romantic songcraft that gives Beta Love its heart.
Track Listing
1. Dance With Me
2. Binary Mind
3. Beta Love
4. Is It Too Much
5. For Once
6. Angel, Please
7. What I Do For You
8. When I Dream
9. That Much
10. Wilderness
11. I Shut Off
seems I can't escape the synths
synth pop heavy here but they call them alternative
nothing I liked
1.3 from me and a converted 2.7 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - Beta Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0MREANxNac
released Jan 22nd, 2013
Bio - from allmusic
Combining indie rock with chamber pop flourishes (courtesy of a small string section), Ra Ra
Riot formed while the band's six members were attending college in Syracuse, New York. Milo
Bonacci (guitar), Alexandra Lawn (cello), Wesley Miles (keyboard/vocals), John Pike (drums),
Mathieu Santos (bass), and Rebecca Zeller (violin) first came together in January 2006,
creating an eclectic sound that allowed them to play alongside the Horrors, Bow Wow Wow, and
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin within a year of the band's formation. After pulling up
stakes and relocating to New York City, the band recorded a self-titled EP and prepared to
release it during the summer of 2007. That June, however, Pike died after disappearing one
night from a party in Fairhaven, Rhode Island. His body was later found in nearby Buzzard's
Bay. Several weeks later, the mourning bandmates issued a statement confirming their
continuation as a band.
Ra Ra Riot joined the roster at V2 Records later that year before switching their American
operations to Barsuk Records, who signed them in May 2008 and released their debut album, The
Rhumb Line, in August. Reviews were positive, and Ra Ra Riot spent the better part of a year on
the road, where they toured with bands like Death Cab for Cutie and headlined their own
performances as well. During a lull in their schedule, the musicians decamped to a peach
orchard in upstate New York, where they spent several weeks writing songs and recording demos.
Those songs eventually made their way onto The Orchard, Ra Ra Riot's second album, which
appeared in August 2010. In 2012, Lawn announced she had left the band. The band did not
replace her and began work on new material. In 2013, Ra Ra Riot delivered its third studio
album, the more synth pop-inflected Beta Love.
Album Review - from allmusic
review
[-]by Matt Collar
Ra Ra Riot's third studio album, 2013's Beta Love, finds the Syracuse outfit delivering an
electronic, keyboard-heavy effort that still retains much of the melodic songcraft and
orchestral influence that marked their previous work. Having parted ways with cellist Alexandra
Lawn in 2012, Ra Ra Riot were surely at a creative crossroads during the recording of Beta
Love. However, the remaining bandmembers (vocalist Wes Miles, violinist Rebecca Zeller,
guitarist Milo Bonacci, and bassist Mathieu Santos) did not replace Lawn and instead traveled
to the warmer climes of Missouri to work with producer/engineer Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello,
Modest Mouse) and a handful of guest musicians on crafting a more experimental, synthesizer-
based sound. With lyrics and songs inspired by a variety of future-looking sources including
author/keyboard inventor Ray Kurzweil and writer William Gibson, Ra Ra Riot employed various
synthesizers to complement their already innovative mix of rock and classical instrumentation.
The result is that Beta Love, while clearly a move away from the precise chamber pop of 2010's
Orchard, is still an immediately infectious, harmonically intriguing album that subtly
incorporates Zeller's classically trained violin chops into an even more unified band sound. In
fact, Zeller's shiny violin is employed so deftly here, often in tandem with the synth lines,
that the focus ends up being more on the overall sound of a song than on any one aspect of an
arrangement. Also still a focal point here is Miles' angelic, resonant tenor croon that,
matched with lyrics that delve into alienation in a modern world, robot love, and the eternal
question of whether or not Androids dream, works as an emotional core for the album. He coos on
the ebullient closing track, "I Shut Off," "Who wants a human love? A Death trap? A Suicide
club? I do... I do..." While there is definitely an atmospheric, introspective, and somewhat
experimental quality to many of the songs on Beta Love, as on the yearning, lyrical ballad
"When I Dream," it is undeniably a dance album. Cuts like the bouncy lead-off "Dance with Me"
and the positively euphoric title track are wide-eyed, neon-colored anthems that seem to find
the perfect balance between Michael Jackson's "Rock with You," ELO's "All Around the World,"
and Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend." Which isnât to say that the album sounds exactly like the
work of any one of these artists in particular, but Beta Love does fit nicely alongside works
by such similarly inclined contemporaries as Minus the Bear and Young Galaxy; bands who've
explored synthesizers and '80s New Wave and adult contemporary as a way to expand their sonic
palette. Ultimately though, whether robotic or human, binary or organic, it is Ra Ra Riot's
gift for addictive, romantic songcraft that gives Beta Love its heart.
Track Listing
1. Dance With Me
2. Binary Mind
3. Beta Love
4. Is It Too Much
5. For Once
6. Angel, Please
7. What I Do For You
8. When I Dream
9. That Much
10. Wilderness
11. I Shut Off
