Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest album, titled Life on Earth (due out February 18 on Nonesuch Records), is full of magic and movement, transcendent, sticky sounds and energizing tracks. Take, for instance, this one featured as our song of the week, “Pierced Arrows.”
If you haven’t heard of them before, Hurray for the Riff Raff is a band from New Orleans formed by Alynda Segarra, a singer-songwriter from the Bronx, New York after she had moved to New Orleans in 2007.
Life on Earth is the first album produced by Segarra in five years. Recorded during the pandemic, the album encapsulates the sometimes uncomfortable modern world. With songs about life in U.S. detention centers, climate change and the refugee crisis, this might sound hard to swallow, but Hurray for the Riff Raff makes it just the opposite to hear. Segarra’s seemingly raw desire to uncover beauty in the world is exposed in her music, making things more bearable, perhaps, or at least beautiful to hear about for once. Sure, it isn’t easy to digest, but what is lately? At least having it sung to us with enchanting vocals can perhaps move us to do more than just scroll through it, with lyrics like:
“This was the place that fell apart,
you were the one to break it. I don’t believe in anything,
this whole f***ing world is changing.
I keep on running for the blue
In her own words, Segarra told Stereogum that “Pierced Arrows” is “a heartbreak song, lost in the realm of memory. Being stuck in the past, and finding the rapidly changing world uncanny and bizarre. Trying to outrun trauma. Finding a meeting place between tough and tender. Memory replaying inside/beside you, triggering fight or flight responses.”