Hurray For The Riff Raff - Hurray for the Riff Raff (2011)

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Hurray for the Riff Raff is the brainchild of Alynda Segarra, a singer/songwriter of Puerto Rican descent whose musical imagination was first sparked by hardcore punk while they were a child in the Bronx. Segarra later gravitated toward American roots music, settling in New Orleans around 2007. There, they formed the first incarnation of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Over the course of several independent releases, they honed their voice, playing with several strands of folk music, grounding themselves with protest songs but incorporating elements of anthemic punk and polyrhythms; they developed an idiosyncratic, all-encompassing Americana that could be heard on Small Town Heroes, their 2014 debut for ATO Records, and which came to full fruition on 2017's The Navigator. Segarra expanded their horizons on 2022's Life on Earth, tackling modern problems with such modern sounds as open-ended vistas created with washes of retro keyboards.

By the time The Navigator saw release in spring of 2017, Segarra had been using the name Hurray for the Riff Raff for a decade. Raised on New York punk and alternative folk, they left home at the age of 17, spending some time hopping trains across America before they wound up in New Orleans. In the Big Easy, they started performing music on the street, eventually playing with the Dead Man Street Orchestra around 2007. Segarra broke away from them quickly, releasing an EP called Crossing the Rubicon that very year. It, like 2008's self-released full length It Don't Mean I Don't Love You, was credited to Hurray for the Riff Raff and, at the time, Segarra was collaborating with bassist David Maclay and drummer/violinist Yosi Pearlstein. These musicians cycled out of the lineup rather quickly, with Segarra firmly established as its central figure after the self-released 2010 album Young Blood Blues.

Segarra compiled highlights from their two self-released records for 2011's Hurray for the Riff Raff, an album that appeared on Loose Music in the spring of 2011. Around this time, Hurray for the Riff Raff began gaining traction, earning play on BBC Radio and getting a write-up in The Times. Look Out Mama, a third album funded by Kickstarter and produced by Andrija Tokic, appeared in 2002 -- Loose released it in Europe, and Born to Win in the U.S. -- it was accompanied in 2013 by a collection of covers called My Dearest Darkest Neighbor.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
By this point, all the activity was enough to earn the attention of major labels, and Hurray for the Riff Raff signed with ATO. Small Town Heroes, their first record for the label, appeared in 2014 to good reviews; it earned strong word of mouth over the next two years. During this time, Segarra relocated to Nashville and expanded their vision for Hurray for the Riff Raff on The Navigator, a 2017 concept album that was quasi-autobiographical and partially inspired by David Bowie's The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars. Upon its March 2017 release, the album was greeted with critical praise.

Hurray for the Riff Raff returned in February 2022 with Life on Earth, an album produced by Brad Cook, who is best-known for his work with Bon Iver and Waxahatchee. For this project, Segarra found inspiration in the writings of Adrienne Maree Brown and the music of the Clash and Bad Bunny.