Ra Ra Riot: Beta Love Review
3 out of 5 stars
It is unlike any band—or artist, or record label or any human being for that matter —to accept their first major release as the beginning of a fiery journey off of a tall cliff.
In attempt to avoid such a cliff, Ra Ra Riot has reinvented itself with its third full-length release, Beta Love. The result is a collection of rushed electronic pop beneath overpowering vocals that haven’t altered since the band’s orchestral debut, The Rhumb Line.
Beta Love is almost completely devoid of the cello compositions that defined the band from its inception in 2006. Instead, there are heavy electronics that simply feel out of place.
The band walks a dangerous line between cheesy and ironic. At times, songs are accompanied by silly computerized whistles and bops; at others, tracks incorporate an 8-bit-style synthesizer which does not agree with vocalist Wes Miles’ clean, professional singing.
Miles’ technically brilliant voice, which sounded so appropriate over an orchestra, instead feels forced over the thin, inconsistent layer of 808 bass and bright synthesizers.
In addition, the scant cello pieces in the album seem as if they were probably incorporated to avoid excluding any original band members. When cello does occasionally pop in and out, it serves as an accent rather than a lead and only further contributes to the band’s identity crisis.
In brief sections when his vocals are auto-tuned, the package feels complete, resembling Miles’ experimental electronic side project with Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, Discovery. The incorporation of various electronics is fruitless without matching vocals, leaving the band without any signature sound.
The band’s lack of commitment to a single sound or concept is its true downfall. There’s the sense that the album consists of five people just playing instruments rather than one solid group.
Lyrically, the album is equally confusing, using computer terminology like “beta” and “binary” in attempt to match a lost theme of computers and robots. It comes across as unserious, and to be honest, the words just feel empty.
When listening, I began to question what message the album was trying to get across, the most prominent having something to do with computers taking over the world. It is the reason I was thrown to hear lyrics such as, “Come and dance with me, pretty sweet fool, I want to be your toy,” that appear in the album’s opening song, “Dance With Me.”
Although Beta Love lacks a clear formation, “For Once,” and “Dance With Me,” stand well alone, and contain quality construction and make sense without consideration of the entire album. In fact, many of the songs make more sense individually, which makes the entire album an enjoyable, easy listen, but any thematic through- line is ambiguous across the album.
Beta Love is Ra Ra Riot’s attempt to reestablish itself. Though the band made a concerted effort to do that, it failed for lack of following through with whatever it attempted to establish. The group’s intentions were poorly executed and lacked direction. The questionably-titled Beta Love fails to answer — or tell — anything.
