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After a lineup switch that saw singer and cellist Alexandra Lawn leave the band, Ra Ra Riot is back with a third album, Beta Love. The new record is similar in some ways to the previous two albums- it’s catchy and intelligent pop music that efficiently makes an impact. It sprints through from start to finish running at roughly a half hour long. It’s a fun listen, but it’s not nearly as good as The Orchard. My favorite Ra Ra Riot song is “Boy” it features Mathiu Santos on bass and it’s some inspired work. On Beta Love it just feels like Santos never gets to let loose. It’s hard for him to make much of an impact here when there is so much synth work that dominates the album. And that’s where Beta Love falls short... The great thing about Ra Ra Riot on The Orchard and previous albums, is that they made pop music with dominance of real instruments. Beta Love just doesn’t capture the same energy with an over-indulgence in false beats. II’ll give Ra Ra Riot this, they didn’t make the same album that they’ve made before. Whether Beta Love is too far away from that is debatable.