Ra Ra Riot + Vampire Weekend = Discovery = great

By Alexa Schlosser

Created:
07/06/09 6:55pm

Last updated:
07/06/09 6:55pm

6 comments

I didn’t count the number of times I heard “oooh baby” on Discovery’s debut album “LP” because I can’t count that high. Luckily, “oooh baby” is my favorite thing to hear ever. But I never imagined I’d get my fix of passionate serenading from indie dudes Rostam Batmanglij (keyboardist from Vampire Weekend) and Wes Miles (Ra Ra Riot frontman). Passionate serenading may be a bit hyperbolic; you won’t hear that there’s nothing wrong with a little bump ’n’ grind (even though I’m sure they would agree there’s not), but you will hear other cheesy things like “Oooh baby you’ve got me goin’ so insane and I just don’t know what’s goin’ down.” No problems here.

But Discovery is neither illogical or hokey, nor is it too serious. And somehow, even though it’s a production representative of the hipster 20-something generation, it doesn’t come off as intentional irony. This, despite prevalent auto-tuning and synth and a cover of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” (seriously). Sounds like everything you never want to hear from two rich white(ish) guys — one of who has a song dedicated to the Oxford comma — right?

Nah. The R&B-sounding lyrics in songs like “So Insane,” “Orange Shirt” and “Can You Discover?” are just a great choice to convey feelings. Their saccharine manner is silly, but their simplicity is pure poppishness. And anyone can create great pop. Not every track on the album is the jam of the century; the synth can get repetitive on “Osaka Loop Line,” but that might just be because it’s the longest track on the album at just more than four minutes. Every other song caps out at about 3:30, and isn’t that just the perfect amount of time to get a catchy song like “Carby” stuck in your head? (Yes.)

“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” — which features Angel Deradoorian from fellow indie band Dirty Projectors (who, oddly, also have an R&B feel to their latest (and greatest?) “Bitte Orca”) — is so good. It’s confusing when Angel coos at me that she wants to be my boyfriend, but I’m about ready to let her because of how perfect the song is. I can hear Janet Jackson or En Vogue singing this same song if they were forced to work with the synth-lovin’ artists of the ’80s. Similarly, the flow on “Orange Shirt” reminds me so much of an Usher delivery, which changes only slightly by a self-aware line about Googling oneself.

“Swing Tree” is average and unsurprising until suddenly the beat turns into one straight out of a Latino rap song. What a turn! The aforementioned “I Want You Back” is not nearly as satisfactory as the real deal, but it’s auto-tuned like mad, and the slow, twilightly feel mixed with the use of what can only be Mario Paint Composer (the swan maybe?) on a Super Nintendo to make the well-known bass melody sure is somethin’.

The album, out Tuesday, is summer 2009 at its best. It’s original and catchy as hell, and they clearly had fun making it so oooh baby baby baby baby baby listen to it.

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Liz Kersjes

(07/06/09 8:13pm)
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Firsties!!!

Matt Flint

(07/07/09 7:03am)
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That Angel Deradoorian is so hot right now.

Stella

(07/07/09 9:27am)
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Great, I had to google the music, what did I do that for? I found that the music of Ra Ra Riot is most definetly HOT! Loved the song Lolla, (but wished some of the words were different…), but the beat..wow! Vamphire, well I still have to decide…

Faith

(07/08/09 12:45pm)
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Since discovering the music of Ra Ra Riot and learning about them somewhat, I find that they are a really interesting band. They began their career as young musicans and as friends. I watched some of their interviews and I am impressed with their down to earth personalitites. I would love to sit and talk with them sometime myself, that would be pretty cool. This is new music to my ears and I love the different instruments, especially the Chello. They are a great group to watch perform and I am already in LOVE with their SONG..CAN YOU TELL! GHOST UNDER ROCKS, is pretty good too! Just what I need to google my day away watching music videos…but it has been worth the discovery of this adorable group.

Google

(07/10/09 10:33pm)
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Ra Ra Riot – “Can You Tell”, it is a GREAT VIDEO! This is the cutest band!

Love the band

(07/16/09 1:12pm)
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Ra Ra Riot!

About Fresh Detective

Copy chief Alexa Schlosser writes about what’s new and interesting in the world of music, movies, fashion and pop culture in her blog Fresh Detective.

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