"A mother so cold and gray/And though she gives you one, she takes one away," sings Wes Miles in "Massachusetts," clearly referring to the ocean that claimed bandmate John Ryan Pike prior to Ra Ra Riot's 2008 debut. With dubby beats, choral vocals and signature strings, it's the most haunted song on the group's second LP, a set of genteel indie pop swinging between Dirty Projectors' ornate chamber music and the prep-school dance party of Vampire Weekend. The latter's Rostam Batmanglij adds bump to "Do You Remember," an abstract riff on Hall and Oates soul that, like the best tracks here, offers a leg up from mourning – into lust, love, life. If the textures still outshine the hooks, well, maybe that's fitting.

“Let My Love Open the Door”

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."