Stream Your Heart Out: What to Listen To

by Ali Dimoff

Ra Ra Riot – “Need Your Light”

Genre: Indie-Rock

Tracks: 10

I (indie) rock out to Ra Ra Riot on the regular. Predominantly to their 2013 album “Beta Love.” However, recently I’ve been acquainting myself to “Need Your Light”—released Feb. 2016.

This album “Absolutely” has some bops. That said, it also has some flops.

The first track, “Water,” and track four, “I Need Your Light,” are both stand-outs. They’re fun. They’re catchy. They’re Ra Ra Riot.

Honorable mentions would include: “Instant Breakup” and “Call Me Out.”

Those four songs could find their way onto just about any of my playlists.

In terms of songs that hit the wrong chord, I cannot get into “Absolutely” or “Bouncy Castle.”

“Absolutely” sounds too much like Smallpools for me. I like Smallpools. A lot. I listen to “Over & Over” well, over and over. I just don’t enjoy when a song sounds eerily familiar to another song, by a different artist.

“Bouncy Castle” does not sound like Smallpools. Comparing it to Smallpools would be giving it too much praise. It just doesn’t work for me. I’d say I had an “Instant Breakup” with “Bouncy Castle,” but I’ve only flirted with it at best.

In all, eight out of 10 are good, I think the album is Ra Ra al-Riot, and definitely worth listening to.

I am hard on this album, only because I love Ra Ra Riot and hold them to standards they previously set for themselves. Give “Need Your Light” a listen, and “Beta Love”, and “The Orchard.” Actually, just go listen to all of Ra Ra Riot’s albums.