NEED YOUR LIGHT (CD) | Mint (M) Mint (M)

Ra Ra Riot – Need Your Light

Label: Barsuk Records – bark160

Format: CD, Album

Country: US

Released: Feb 19, 2016

Genre: Rock, Pop

Style: Indie Pop, Indie Rock

1                       Water

Music By, Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Music By, Lyrics By, Producer, Mixed By, Drum Programming, Synth, Piano, Percussion, Engineer, Arranged By – Rostam Batmanglij

2                       Absolutely

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Ra Ra Riot

Music By, Lyrics By – Dennis Herring

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

3                       Foreign Lovers

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By, Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

4                       I Need Your Light

Music By, Lyrics By, Producer, Mixed By, Engineer, Drum Programming, Synth, Hihat, Bass, Guitar – Rostam Batmanglij

Tom Tom – Garrett Ray

5                       Bad Times

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Dennis Herring, Ra Ra Riot

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

6                       Call Me Out

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Ra Ra Riot

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

7                       Instant Breakup

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Ra Ra Riot

Music By, Lyrics By – Dennis Herring

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

8                       Every Time I'm Ready To Hug

Engineer – Jerry Streeter, Ryan Hadlock

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Ra Ra Riot

Music By, Lyrics By – Dennis Herring

9                       Bouncy Castle

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Gabriel Duquette, Ra Ra Riot

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

10                     Suckers

Engineer – Jerry Streeter

Lyrics By – Wesley Miles

Mixed By – Claudius Mittendorfer

Music By – Ra Ra Riot

Producer, Engineer – Ryan Hadlock

Licensed To – Barsuk Records

Engineered At – Bear Creek Studios

Mastered At – The Lodge, New York

Designed At – Silent Giants

Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Ra Ra Riot

Copyright © – Ra Ra Riot

Glass Mastered At – CDA ImPressing Solutions, USA – 2855545

Bass Guitar – Mathieu Santos

Cello – Clarice Jensen (tracks: 2, 3, 5 to 10)

Design, Layout – Christopher Everhart

Drums – Kenneth Bernard (2)

Engineer [Additional] – Connor Hoffman (tracks: 2, 3, 5 to 10), Taylor Carroll

Guitar – Milo Bonacci

Management – Josh Roth

Mastered By – Emily Lazar

Mastered By [Assisted] – Chris Allgood

Photography By [Cover And Fold-Out] – Jared Chambers

Photography By [Inside] – Shervin Lainez

Violin – Rebecca Zeller

Vocals – Wes Miles*

Gatefold card sleeve with foldout lyric poster.

Barcode (Scanned): 655173116029

 

Personnel: Wes Miles (vocals); Milo Bonacci (guitar); Rebecca Zeller (violin); Mathieu Santos (bass guitar); Kenneth Bernard (drums). Recording information: Bear Creek Studios; Echo Park Backhouse Studios; Vox Studios. Photographer: Jared Chambers. Despite having begun life as an indie outfit featuring two string players, Syracuse's Ra Ra Riot transformed into a synth-heavy, dance-oriented ensemble after the departure of cellist Alexandra Lawn in 2010. Following up 2013's Beta Love, the group's fourth album, 2016's Need Your Light, finds the quartet of lead singer/keyboardist Wes Miles, violinist Rebecca Zeller, guitarist Milo Bonacci, and bassist Mathieu Santos building upon that synth pop sound with a buoyant, infectious batch of songs that better balances their love of analog keyboards with their orchestral roots. Produced by former Vampire Weekend guitarist Rostam Batmanglij, Need Your Light feels bigger, looser, and more organically robust than Beta Love. While there is a bright studio sheen to the album, many of the cuts, including "Foreign Lovers" and the driving U2-influenced title track, sound as if they could have been recorded live in one take. Furthermore, while tracks like "Bad Times," "Instant Breakup," and the proggy, Peter Gabriel-esque "Bouncy Castle" are built around buzzy '80s synths, kinetic beats, and driving, low-end basslines, there's just enough of Zeller's warm violin to keep things from ever getting too icy. Similarly, Miles, pushing his angelic, highly resonant voice to its limit here, has never sounded more aggressively enthused. Cuts like the driving "Call Me Out" and "Absolutely," though in no way slavish retro re-creations, do bring to mind the soaring arena power of bands like Journey, and wouldn't sound out of place on an '80s Jefferson Starship album. Ultimately, Need Your Light is an ambitious, thrilling album, full of songs that aim to grab your heart as well as your ears. ~ Matt Collar

• Media Condition: Mint (M)
• Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
• Format Detail: CD Wallet
• Format: CD
• Genre: POP
• Released: 2/19/16
• Internal ID: JITRE