Man, I love these guys. I was just thinking about how good Hometowns is today, when my mom gave me this record as a Hanukkah present. No, Hanukkah doesn’t start until tomorrow, but I am never one to turn down a gift, so I hope y’all are okay with me putting aside the suggestions for a day because I really wanted to listen to this record. And if you’re not okay with that, let’s just say that I won’t lose too much sleep over it tonight.
This time around, I wasted no time when getting into RAA’s sound. When I listened to Hometowns back in April, I was a little apprehensive about frontman Nils Edenloff’s vocals. They’re weird as hell, but somehow awesome. I don’t know how I didn’t make the comparison to Jeff Mangum eight months ago, but that doesn’t even matter because I’m making it now. I’ll even go as far as to say that there are a few tracks on here that sound a tad like Neutral Milk Hotel. Granted, these songs are the slower RAA tracks, and would still be a little upbeat for NMH, but the similarity is there nonetheless.
There’s also much to be said in favor of a relatively short record, too. I love it when a band can do what they need to do in a timely manner, especially with my whole “listening to an album every day” thing. The RAA get in, get the job done, and leave you satisfied and smiling in just 32.8 minutes, according to the bottom of my iTunes window. Mad props for that.
Swole Ear 
Did you really write “mad props”? Take it back, please.