Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive (Album Review)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Written by Jack Butler-Terry
Photo: Tommy Kha
Alynda Segarra has lived a life. Every detail — the teenage runaway, the box cars, years spent busking — has come to inform their standing as one of America’s most talented and interesting singer-songwriters. And, while their fortunes may have changed, Hurray For the Riff Raff’s ninth album ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is a sobering reminder that every experience leaves an indelible mark.
The album is awash with relatable, poignant imagery that makes Segarra’s feelings and intentions obvious and, at times, tragic. Across its 10 songs, Segarra recalls “getting dropped off on a county line” (Ogallala), “shoplifting when it’s time to eat” (Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)) and drinking “a fifth before 3pm” (Hawkmoon). Theirs is a stark and graceful sort of honesty that breathes colour and life into these tales.
The opening songs, Alibi and Buffalo, are stories of love told through very specific lenses: addiction and the reality of waiting for your person, respectively.
Segarra moves from blunt observations to delicate metaphors with ease, dovetailing lines such as, “I see your track marks poking through your hoodiе sleeve” and “Two weeks just to catch the buffalo / Some things take time, I know they do.”
Never one to stay in their lane, ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is a far cry from 2022’s ‘Life On Earth’ in terms of its sound. That LP’s sweeping synths and harsh drums have been replaced with strings, keys and steel guitar, giving Segarra’s smooth voice more of a country sheen, resulting in an album that feels both welcoming and private, as though we are voyeurs in a home or therapy session.
Just as our personal histories continue to leave their impression on our present, so too will ‘The Past Is Still Alive’, a beautiful and brutal autobiography that reminds us to find some good in all that we go through.
Hurray for the Riff Raff Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri May 10 2024 - DUBLIN Button Factory
Sat May 11 2024 - MANCHESTER Deaf Institute - Music Hall
Sun May 12 2024 - GLASGOW Mono - Kings Court
Tue May 14 2024 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Wed May 15 2024 - BIRMINGHAM Castle and Falcon
Fri May 17 2024 - LONDON Electric Brixton
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