Post by ChrisB on Feb 1, 2022 0:07:39 GMT
February 2022(1) - Hurray for the Riff Raff - 'The Navigator' (2017)
Hurray for the Riff Raff is a New Orleans band formed and led by Alynda Segarra, a New York born singer-songwriter. 'The Navigator' is the eighth album by the band (or seventh, if you don't count live albums).
Before writing and recording began Alynda Segarra travelled to Puerto Rico to and connect with her familial and cultural roots, a trip which inspired much of the song writing. She was moved by the effects of debt crisis and environmental damage on the communities there and the way that Puerto Rican culture had coped with hardship.
She also travelled to The Bronx where she had spent her childhood, seeing how gentrification had affected things there since she had left at the age of seventeen to become a musician.
Given all of the above influences, 'The Navigator' is kind of a concept album with the main character based on her 16 year old self, but living in a gentrified city of the future:
I didn't know this album or band at all until last week, when I read a review of the, yet to be released, follow up album, which sounded interesting. With that being currently unavailable, I listened to the next best thing - this one. The new album, 'Life on Earth' will be released on the 18th February 2022.
Hurray for the Riff Raff is a New Orleans band formed and led by Alynda Segarra, a New York born singer-songwriter. 'The Navigator' is the eighth album by the band (or seventh, if you don't count live albums).
Before writing and recording began Alynda Segarra travelled to Puerto Rico to and connect with her familial and cultural roots, a trip which inspired much of the song writing. She was moved by the effects of debt crisis and environmental damage on the communities there and the way that Puerto Rican culture had coped with hardship.
She also travelled to The Bronx where she had spent her childhood, seeing how gentrification had affected things there since she had left at the age of seventeen to become a musician.
Given all of the above influences, 'The Navigator' is kind of a concept album with the main character based on her 16 year old self, but living in a gentrified city of the future:
She's this very independent spirit, a tough girl. She feels very suffocated by the city, the poverty and how everyone is cramped together. She has this overwhelming feeling that something is wrong. And she's also very ashamed of where she comes from. So that's where The Navigator begins.
She wants to escape. It's like this Wizard of Oz story: Navi asks this wise woman to wake up the next day without remembering or recognizing anyone or anything. So this woman puts her to sleep for forty years; she then wakes up in the same city. In this future, gentrification has gone rapid. And basically in my mind, Trump is mayor in this place. I thought about this very extreme dictator-like figure who wants to separate everyone. Someone who wants to get all people of color and the poor out of certain neighborhoods to somewhere remote.
She wants to escape. It's like this Wizard of Oz story: Navi asks this wise woman to wake up the next day without remembering or recognizing anyone or anything. So this woman puts her to sleep for forty years; she then wakes up in the same city. In this future, gentrification has gone rapid. And basically in my mind, Trump is mayor in this place. I thought about this very extreme dictator-like figure who wants to separate everyone. Someone who wants to get all people of color and the poor out of certain neighborhoods to somewhere remote.
I didn't know this album or band at all until last week, when I read a review of the, yet to be released, follow up album, which sounded interesting. With that being currently unavailable, I listened to the next best thing - this one. The new album, 'Life on Earth' will be released on the 18th February 2022.