Ra Ra Riot - Each Year / A Manner To Act Single Review

Ra Ra Riot
Each Year / A Manner To Act
Single Review

As someone who's had a passionate dislike of all things Levellers for a number of years now, any notion of combining the fiddle with popular music would definitely be dismissed at a moment's notice. The Pogues excepted, why would you? Seriously.?

So when the first few bars of Syracuse student combo Ra Ra Riot's 'Each Year' give way to a sound Vanessa Mae would be proud of it doesn't, or rather shouldn't, bode well.

What saves this from the mire though is the fact that underneath the frantic string-scraping is a chorus to die for and an aching sense of melancholia that actually lifts Ra Ra Riot, along with the likes of The Little Ones and White Rabbits, to the forefront of the queue for young Americans most likely to lead the post-millennium clarion call for independent music.

Fellow a-side 'A Manner To Act' isn't quite so memorable but I'm sure with a bit of friendly persuasion and several more listens those feelings may be ever-so-slightly swayed. Intriguing.

6/10
Dom Gourlay