Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line

Artist: Ra Ra Riot
Album: The Rhumb Line

Even without its distinct violin, cello, and passionate sweeping vocals, Ra Ra Riot’s The Rhumb Line would still be one of the best indie rock albums of recent memory. What those unique elements do is form a rich, layered, new sound that indie rock die hards will love, and even listeners outside the genre will appreciate and embrace. It’s rare that a young band, any band for that matter, shows such a clear understanding of the sound they want to produce, and executes it so well, but Ra Ra Riot have done it.

The album begins with the one of its best songs, the up tempo rock track “Ghost Under Rocks”, in which you immediately experience the exuberance of the quartet’s violin and cello, along with lead singer Wes Miles’ striking vocals. Next we hear the first of the album’s several mellow tracks with “Each Year” and “St. Peter’s Festival”, the latter whose chorus sucks you with its increasingly louder chants of ‘Come on’, eventually reaching crescendo, ending with ‘and let us in’.

The next track, “Winter ‘05”, an ode to someone no longer around, with the lyric ‘If you were here/winter wouldn’t pass quite so slow’, is a throwback to the Beatles’ ballad “Blackbird”.

“Dying Is Fine”, the first single off The Rhumb Line, is easily the best track, boasting an extremely catchy finger picked guitar melody reminiscent of Vampire Weekend and Ted Leo, to the backdrop of bittersweet cello and violin and a quick hi-hat drumming pattern.

The album is rounded out with a few mellow tracks such as “Can You Tell”, whose sweeping guitar and capsizing vocals will sound familiar to Voxtrot and Flaming Lips fans, as well as the synthesizer heavy “Too Too Too Fast”, a throwback to 80’s pop.

FREE DOWNLOAD OF "Dying Is Fine" here on Spinner

"Ghost Under Rocks"