Ra Ra Riot
The Orchard

I was waiting for Ra Ra Riot's second album like a 13-year-old's hymen awaits a phone call from her boyfriend. I was on edge, not so much because their debut "The Rhumb Line" was a small chamber-pop masterpiece with real romantic anthems ("Can You Tell" and "Each Year"), but because I felt that the band hadn't been given its due credit. Everyone forgot about this band, which had the misfortune of being born in the shadow of the Vampire Weekend phenomenon. In reality, it seemed the same misfortune accompanied the birth of the Syracuse band when in 2007 their drummer/composer John Ryan Pike drowned under mysterious circumstances.

Hence, the disappointment is stinging in front of this second release "The Orchard." Ra Ra Riot not only lost their incisiveness and originality, but they also struggled to repeat the patterns of their debut.
Let's be clear, this is and will remain an appreciable record, but nothing more; it was reasonable to expect something else. The romance is gone, and that spontaneous liveliness that distinguished them has disappeared; however, we shouldn't get too disheartened; there are some beautiful songs. The punk-folk gem "Boy," for example, with its tarantella-like bass, is something you won't easily forget. "Massachusetts" splendidly mimics their friends Vampire Weekend and has a simply irresistible falsetto refrain.
At the end of the album, we return to the atmospheres of the debut with "Do You Remember" and "Keep It Quiet." They still know how to recreate the good moments; too little, however, in comparison to the substance that made "The Rhumb Line" an unforgettable record in my memory.