Ra Ra Riot - Boy

Ra Ra Riot may have seemed interchangeable with any number of other American college rock bands, but they’re 2008 debut, ‘The Rhumb Line’, showed that bubbling underneath their sprightly tunes was a strong air of melancholy, which was only heightened by the untimely death of their original drummer. It was this sense of pain and mourning that gave the record a lot of its power and made it one of the better debuts of that year.

Which is why it’s with open arms we welcome them back, with the first track off their sophomore album, ‘Boy’. And what a first impression it is. Boy is frantic, yet moving, starting on the highest gear possible and never shifting down. This has a lot to do with the monolithic drums merging perfectly with the tender falsetto of lead singer Wes Miles. The lyrics are laced with a tangible sadness with lines like “I wake up in 20,000 years, with every ghost I ever knew” standing out. Yet, thanks to the string section and hypnotically shuffling bassline, it all sounds rather hopeful, moving beyond the pain you can hear seeping from Miles voice. It’s this emotion that makes it one of the most moving singles to grace us in far too long.

If a genetic experiment consisting of mixing Arcade Fire’s bombast with Vampire Weekend’s hyperactive melodies was ever carried out - and really, why on earth this hasn’t happened yet is beyond us - then ‘Boy’ would be the pile of DNA at the bottom of the test tube. For some, this lack of originality may be grating, but any song that would have been perfect for a John Hughes film ending montage deserves your attention.