Ra Ra Riot - Beta Love (Review)

Ra Ra Riot

Beta Love 

Track List:


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 U


8 – When I Dream


9 – That Much


10 – Wilderness


11 – I Shut Off

5/10

Here's Why:

When I think of Ra Ra Riot I think of soft strings, easygoing rock and catchy bass lines. That’s the formula that Ra Ra Riot has stuck with in previous albums and it worked wonderfully. The lyrics are always “cute” and heart felt matching the poppy, happy rhythms. When you break it down, Beta Love is set up the same as the other albums. The huge difference here is the obvious electronic influence and prominent use of the drum machine. Lead singer, Wes Miles, continues to bring us his hooky vocal melodies, this time over some very fat kick drums.

The band still incorporates guitar riffs and minimal amounts of violins and strings (most likely midi). For the most part, the keyboard, drum machine and Miles lead the way. To me, this seems to be a Wes Miles’ solo album. I feel the same way about Adam Levine and Maroon 5. Both bands have gone from a live rock/pop sound to being heavily influenced by EDM (electronic dance music).

Throughout Beta Love I feel the kick drum is a little much. Especially on the track “When I Dream”, that drum intro bothers me at first. When the rest of the instruments kick in, it melts into the mix but I’m still reminded of a Kanye West song. “Dance With Me”, the opening song and probably the most similar to Maroon 5, carries along with very relatable lyrics. “Come and dance with, bitter sweet fool, I wanna be your toy, I wanna be your toy.” The lyrics aren’t anything too serious and are easy to groove too. Ra Ra Riot did a great job putting that song and some others together, but the majority of the songs feel like they were just pieced together without much thought. “Binary Mind” is basically an 80s dance idea remixed and sped up. The new sound is definitely different. I still hear the Ra Ra Riot I grew to love behind all of this, but this change is a little weird for me.

Though many critics are blaming the change of the sound on the fact that Ra Ra Riot’s cellist left, I feel the change has something to do with “sales”. As we are all aware, electronic dance music is booming right now throughout the mainstream population. I’m sure this is the bands attempt to fit in and adapt to the changing times. Yes, Alexandra Lawn left, but it was more of a departure than anything. How often do we hear cellos on radios these days? Of course, I won’t know exactly what they were thinking but that motive seems quite possible.

With all albums there are strong points and weak points. Ra Ra Riot tried to do something new and I give them props for doing so. Miles does a good job delivering memorable hooks leaving the album with a few decent songs. The work done on the album isn’t terrible, I wouldn’t mind replaying it, but it wouldn’t draw me out to a Ra Ra Riot show. In my opinion the Beta Love content is not quite rock enough to make a good live show and not quite electronic enough to be spun in a DJ set. For that reason I give it a 5/10

-Dead Eyes