Review: Ra - ‘Black Sun’
Posted: September 21th, 2008
Contributed By: Nick
 |
Purchase @ Amazon.com Release Date: September 23, 2008 via Sahaja Music |
| Ra is: Sahaj Ticotin (Vocals / Guitar) Ben Carroll (Guitar) PJ Farley (Bass) Andy Ryan (Drums) |
Overview: The path from Ra’s last album ‘Duality‘ to present day has been quite a rocky one. In June 2005, Ra’s sophomore record ‘Duality‘ hit stores, amidst much hoopla between the band and then home Universal Republic; initially, the album had been shelved by the label, intended to never reach the public. Although new life was breathed into ‘Duality‘ with a formal release and solid charting from lead single “Fallen Angels”, the record got swept under the rug, leaving Ra out in the cold. The group soldiered on however, hooking up with industry personality Dan Catullo and his newly formed Cement Shoes Records in late 2006. Around the same time, Ra unveiled a live album entitled ‘Raw‘, which boasted the new studio track “Don’t Turn Away”. Despite the promise of a future with Cement Shoes Records, a lack of organization, communication and funds was enough to send Ra running for their lives, free agents once again. This wasn’t the end of the line for band brainchild Sahaj Ticotin, who erected his own imprint Sahaja Music Records with distribution through longtime partners Universal Records. Oh yeah, Ra wrote and recorded an entire new record to boot. With all systems finally go, Ra are back with ‘Black Sun‘. Request first single “Broken Hearted Soul” on your local active rock station.
The Good: A Black Hole. The Black Plague. The Black Sox Scandal. Black Licorice. ‘Black Sun‘. Jumpin’ Jehosephat, ‘Black Sun‘ doesn’t belong there, because Ra gallops like a purdy ole black beauty more often than not on this here record disc. “Broken Hearted Soul” busts out in a frolic, setting a happy-go-lucky vibe that Ra needed to prove they have been able to slay the wraiths of the past and move forward triumphantly. As the leadoff batter and first piece of radio matter from ‘Black Sun‘, the consistent oomph of “Broken Hearted Soul” proves clutch. Veteran Ra fans will be able to nestle into ‘Black Sun‘ more comfortably thanks to an eloquent taste of ‘Duality‘ found in “Faulty Information”, whose verses echo those of the song “I Lost Everything Today”. The tail end of said verses turn on the engines and rocket you through the weighty, hulky choruses and cunning bridge, a Sahaj Ticotin diatribe with a Papa Roach approach; Sahaj occupies the driver’s seat right on into the spacey “The First Step”. In commanding fashion, Ticotin plays on the vastness of the song’s dark verses, cutting from deep and haunting to radiant and glorious without batting an eye. In a peculiar abstract sense, the craziest part of “The First Step” is held within the astral sounding bridge, whose overall sound and pitch are in the ballpark of “Summertime”, the old Will Smith classic. With a tribal, drum-only opener, the intrigue of “Push” will lock you in and show you how well its soulful verses and assertive, gritty choruses get along. Although not new on paper, the cameo of “Don’t Turn Away” is welcomed, exerting a whimsical and at times blissfully poppy charm that no other ‘Black Sun‘ contender can outwit. “Lost Along the Way” must be teeming about being lost, because from the sick Arabian-induced lead to the final blow of throbbing riffs and punchy drums, this tune bleeds attitude, with a slightly abrasive delivery by Sahaj fueling it along the way. Mystifying you with a lonely piano chiming through a fog, “I Believe” is an impassioned and sensitive number of which Ville Valo would give two fangs up. “I Believe Again” might be gentle, but it knows exactly when to roughhouse, helping to further hoist up its radiant chorus as one of the album’s most memorable. In a peculiar abstract sense, the craziest part of “I Believe” is how perfectly at times it resembles a little song called “Missing” by Everything But the Girl. “Genocide” is as authoritative as it sounds, full of hunger and thunder to show Ra doing anything but tapering off as the album gears down.
There are three songs from ‘Black Sun‘ that deserve special recognition for their excellence (going in order of appearance). Little could you expect that the serene, Celtic whispers introducing “Waste of Space” would grow into one of Ra’s most eclectic and progressive shows. Mature, artistically cinematic and exploding with mood and urgency, there has never been a more criminal misusage of the phrase waste of space. Believe me, the last thing the well orchestrated, colorfully textured “Waste of Space” is is a waste. Powerfully cathartic and passionate, “A Poets Dream” is like peering out the window of a dark room, gazing at a cloudy sky, and wishing you could replicate a ray of sunlight. “A Poets Dream” will satiate ‘From One’ era fans, as adequately as the way it reminisces upon a ‘Duality‘ sleeper, “Superman”. As the best sleeper track from ‘Black Sun‘, this is one enchanting and poignant dream from which you won’t want to awake. The last hoorah on ‘Black Sun‘ is “Easier Than This”, a truly dazzling way for Ra to digress. Exploratory and all the while resplendent, “Easier Than This” is luminous like the light of a thousand candles lit at once. This is a song of royalty for Ra, and I’ll just leave it at that.
The Bad: There might be plenty of reasons to get excited about ‘Black Sun‘, but there is also an alarming number of reasons to wipe that smile off your face. To start, the first three tracks sound like mirrors of each other at their cores, especially in regards to the interchangeable choruses of “Faulty Information” and “The First Step”. Ra’s greatest underachievement is “Push”, where a wealth of potential is strangled early by a riff way too similar to Nickelback’s lackluster “Savin’ Me”. “Push” even has the capability of doing something special at its sundown, because Ra avoids ending the song under typical chorus, repeat chorus protocol. With such a move, you would think the band was setting you up for something special; such is not the case, the final breaths of “Push” a boring, redundant waste. Really though, ‘Black Sun‘ doesn’t hit its stride until much later on, but without a strong showing early, it will be tough to hold the listener’s attention long enough to get that far; for a new listener to miss out on second half gems like “A Poets Dream” or “Easier Than This” because of the mediocre first half of ‘Black Sun‘ is an absolute crime. I’m really aggravated at the piss poor and downright cheap recording quality of ‘Black Sun‘, a tremendously glaring flaw that I find impossible to overlook no matter how hard I try. This deflation might not be so tragic if it weren’t associated with a band like Ra, whose ambient music thrives on a crystal clear, enveloping sound diet. Ipso facto, I really feel like ‘Black Sun‘ never achieves full potential at any point, be it the most forgettable line or the most jaw-dropping, perfect moment. After hearing ‘Black Sun‘ from the top down numerous times, I don’t consider most of the album able to justify the 3 years plus between ‘Duality‘ and now. Sure, the trio of “Waste of Space”, “A Poets Dream”, and “Easier Than This” are some of Ra’s finest works, but the rest of ‘Black Sun‘ on the whole is pretty commonplace; and with 3 years to toy with, I expected much bigger things from Ra.
Bottomline: Let it be known that my expectations for Ra are set significantly higher than most of their peers, simply based on what the band has proven they can write and record in the past. Add to that my uncontrollable anticipation for ‘Black Sun‘, and Ra ends up with quite a mouth to feed. Regardless of how high I set the bar, Ra falls short on ‘Black Sun‘. An album I expected to sound like a fresh, reborn Ra, free from record company shackles, ‘Black Sun‘ is instead a lukewarm, by the numbers affair, unable to be buoyed by a saving grace. The part about this that pains me most is that Ra so smoothly and effortlessly cranked out the three songs that stand out from ‘Black Sun‘, but for some reason seems so rigid and blatantly remedial for the other 8 tunes. Perhaps I was too quick to conclude about Ra what I did in one of the sentences describing “Broken Hearted Soul”. I stated it sounded like Ra had squashed their past demons and moved forward. When it’s all said and done though, ‘Black Sun‘ is no way for a band bred on innovation and enterprise to make a roaring comeback.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Comments
Comment from Meagan
Date: September 21, 2008, 7:40 pm
There were actually 5 tracks that were released to the public before the album was released. Brocken Hearted Soul, Don’t Turn Away, Faulty Information, The First Step, and Genocide (which was previously an “unreleased” track). . .
Btw, the song is called “I believe again”… not “I believe”. There is actually a track on From One that features a song called “I believe” and they actually implement lyrics from “I believe” into “I believe again” with a different tune… very catchy! kind of like they did with “the only one” and “do you call my name”… I like the way they are keeping that “idea” from album to album. . .
I gotta say I can’t agree with your review. . . personally I’d give it a 9/10. It would be a 10/10 if it weren’t for the muffled digital quality. :) Sahaj has said that the CD quality would be lucid-clear though. . . just gotta wait for the physical release.
Oh, and for those who are wondering, the album is #10 on the iTunes rock charts! :)
Comment from Chris
Date: September 21, 2008, 7:56 pm
Or you can click the Ra icon in the sidebar :)
Comment from salastna
Date: September 22, 2008, 12:57 am
Well the quality of the stream is worse than the digital version.
Comment from Chris
Date: September 22, 2008, 3:38 am
96k just like all the other streams we’ve done and the tracks came off the physical CD
Comment from Nate
Date: September 22, 2008, 11:50 am
disappointed as well with this. i heard the quality issues as well (Metallica anyone?) in the stream and would expect the same from the CD. Black Sun is a single when you would expect a triple or home run.
Comment from Meagan
Date: September 22, 2008, 12:00 pm
I just also wanted to add… how do you compare Nickelback’s “Savin’ Me” to Ra’s “Push”? They sound absolutely NOTHING alike…
Comment from Mike
Date: September 22, 2008, 12:35 pm
How come Meagan’s first comment keeps changing?
Comment from salastna
Date: September 22, 2008, 2:07 pm
You give Ra a 6.5, but Jet Black Stare gets a 9? WOW.
Comment from Meagan
Date: September 22, 2008, 2:27 pm
It hasn’t changed, Mike…
Comment from daedae
Date: September 22, 2008, 6:10 pm
I’ll probably pick this one up on my way home tomorrow, and then we’ll see. Without having heard the album I’m somewhat inclined to agree with salastna–I’m a little dubious of the reviews around here because it seems like virtually nothing ever gets a bad score, and some albums or bands that I think are pretty terrible get excessively high scores. I guess we’ll see if you picked the right time to stop sucking up to bands.
Comment from mattjames1708
Date: September 23, 2008, 12:52 am
nick isnt afraid to give low ratings……just look at the velvet revolver review and you will know exactly what i mean……i wouldn’t call it sucking up to bands hes just giving the album the rating he believes it deserves thats all….if he thinks it sucks he’ll give it a lower score.
Comment from Meagan
Date: September 23, 2008, 5:09 am
I agree with you matt, but I honestly do not think this album deserves a 6.5. It’s MUCH better than that.
Comment from ausgor
Date: September 23, 2008, 9:24 am
I have to agree with Meagan, 6.5 is hard to justify. I’ve only listened through it once so far and I’d give it at least an 8.
Comment from Lucas
Date: September 23, 2008, 1:28 pm
Luckily the cd album quality is much better than the digital releases.
Comment from Nick
Date: September 23, 2008, 8:04 pm
really? thank god
Comment from Shameson
Date: September 23, 2008, 8:20 pm
Good to hear that the CD quality is better than the digital releases. This will be a must pick up for me then.
Comment from mattjames1708
Date: September 24, 2008, 7:28 am
i dont know why but when i listen to this album i kinda get a submersed feeling from it.
Comment from jman3000
Date: September 25, 2008, 1:36 pm
This album is way better than a 6.5. In fact I think it’s their best album yet. I’m likeing it a lot.
Comment from scionchick
Date: September 26, 2008, 6:21 am
I haven’t picked up the album yet but I’ve streamed the album online and I think it deserves more than a 6.5 I would at least give it a 8.5 I think this is their best album so far. :-D
Comment from beyondthesun
Date: September 26, 2008, 12:24 pm
From what I’ve heard so far the album isn’t better than Duality, but I think 6.5 is too low for it. There are good songs, and bad songs, nothing special here. I’d give it 7.5/10, or maybe 8, maybe it’ll grow on me after a little while.
But for me, Ra’s best song is Sky, without a doubt. They cannot make another one like that. That song is a glowing gem, a pure perfection from the beginning to the end.
Comment from Meagan
Date: September 26, 2008, 4:38 pm
I agree, Sky is definitely their best song :)
Comment from Lucas
Date: September 28, 2008, 8:40 pm
I do have to agree to disagree with the rating and some of the “bad” on this review. Plus the only song you really dogged on, “Push”, shouldn’t bring an entire album down 3.5/10 rating, which seems to be the only thing that you really ranted about on it. I can see where you’re coming from with the “Push” similarity to “Savin’ Me” but side-by-side they’re not the same at all really. I do agree that the last part of the album may have it’s stronger points, but the first half is good in it’s own right. It’s the heavier/harder side of the album while the end takes on a little more emotion in the likes of the trio of “Waste of Space”, “Easier Than This”, and “A Poet’s Dream”. Overall I feel it’s one of Ra’s best efforts. It’s really taken a little longer to grow on me than I had imagined, but it’s at least an 8/10 or 8.5/10 for me. I only wish they would’ve added a few more tunes instead of re-using “Genocide” (an old B-Side) and “Don’t Turn Away” from ‘Raw’. But they still work as a whole. Maybe the next album they can focus a lot more on the album instead of dealing with all the label issues like they’ve had the last 2½ years.
Comment from hugger10
Date: September 29, 2008, 10:42 pm
Being a huge fan of Submersed and Ra (they share 1# on my list along with Atomship) I don’t see a similarity. But I’m glad to see someone who’s heard of submersed, they were underated IDT era and Rick Beato squeezed music such shitty out of them for Immortal verses I couldn’t beleive it’s them. Hope MMA does well
Comment from music_is_life_is_music
Date: October 8, 2008, 6:23 pm
You are missing the point! This album is a freakin’ Masterpiece! I can’t wait to see if this band solidifies any more and can actually create a better effort! 12 out of 10!
I flew to Las Vegas to see Joe Satriani, I would fly anywhere to see this band.
Does anyone understand how difficult it is to create and ‘Stand Apart’ from the crowd in this Day and Age? A few bands have pulled it off lately such as Nickelback, Seether, Joe Satriani and others, but to pull it off with a lack of support…!!!!
This sound is original, this sound is mature, the band is making statements and the fact that it is internally produced indicates to me that what you hear is the pure gutteral Ra sound, can we wish for anything more?
You bashed ‘Push’ but I haven’t heard a better political statement of what is wrong and what needs done out of anyone since Marvin Gaye’s ‘Whats Going On’
How could you miss that?
Sahaj and the guys….Keep it up!
Comment from carlonius85
Date: November 7, 2008, 9:35 am
No music is life is music… This album is not a masterpiece….Compared to From One this album is poor and compared to Duality this album is pathetic. The best songs ‘Broken Hearted Soul’, ‘Don’t Turn Away’, and ‘Faulty Information’, are songs I heard before the album even dropped. The choruses sound all too similar to each other. It doesn’t have that catchy Ra touch to it. There is not one song on this album that even comes remotely close to touching songs like Taken, Tell Me, Superman, or Swimming Upstream. And why not? Because they changed the content of their lyrics. They went from writing predominately about love to writing about their problems with their record label. I respect the fact that they are pissed but to waste an entire album on it is surreal. And I am a very very open music fan. I don’t give a shit about ’sounding like old stuff and it doesn’t it sucks’. I’m not like that. Good tunes are good tunes. But this album, to me is one of the biggest musical disappointments of the past few years. I was expecting a lot more. Songs like Say You Will, Tell Me, On My Side, Taken…those are the songs Ra fans want to hear trust me. They don’t want to hear about record label problems in ‘Waste Of Space’, genocides, or choruses that sound exactly like the song before. “The Next Step” - > Faulty Information. Hopefully their next record is more like Duality because that album speaks from the heart.
Comment from carlonius85
Date: November 7, 2008, 9:36 am
ok
Comment from carlonius85
Date: November 7, 2008, 9:43 am
First of all, this album is light years away from a masterpiece. I will try to be as succinct as possible to get my point across. From One was good, Duality was great, and Black Sun is pathetic. Problem with this albums: Most songs sound the same especially the choruses. I am a very open music fan but I haven’t been this musically disappointed in a long time. The best songs are the ones that were released before the album even dropped. With the exceptions of Faulty Information, Broken Hearted Soul, and Don’t Turn Away, there really isn’t much intriguing about this album. They built it up to be the greatest album ever and instead of making songs from the HEART they made an album bad mouthing genocides and their former record label. I think I’m speaking for the majority of Ra fans when I say that the songs we need are On My Side, Tell Me, Superman, Taken, Say You Will, Swimming Upsteam, Sky. Things of the nature. Real songs. My theory is good tunes are good tunes but this is just poor work compared to their previous efforts. They are not connecting with the listener with these songs. Cheesy lyrics as well to most choruses. Faulty Information stands out from the rest and the album should be modeled around that song and that style. I listen to Duality religiously and I listen to Black Sun seldomly. Huge let down. Go back to the songs about emotions and love and not about your record label problems. Fans care but don’t want to hear songs about it.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.