"LIFE ON EARTH" (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)

Submitted by nonesuch on
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, performs “LIFE ON EARTH,” the title track to their 2022 Nonesuch debut album, in this new version with their friends and fellow New Orleans musicians, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Segarra describes the album track, which the New York Times’ Lindsay Zoladz named the Best Song of 2022, as “a psalm to all earthly beings.”

Description

A new version of the song "LIFE ON EARTH" by Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, was released on December 21, 2022. The track features Segarra’s friends and fellow New Orleans musicians, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and was recorded live in Esplanade Studios. 

Segarra describes the track from their critically acclaimed 2022 album LIFE ON EARTH as, "A psalm to all earthly beings. A letter regarding the suffering of humankind which effects all on this planet."

The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz named "Life on Earth" to the number one spot on her best songs of the year list, saying: "Alynda Segarra takes the long view on this elegiac, piano-driven hymn … As it progresses at its own unhurried tempo, the song, remarkably, seems to slow down time, or at least zoom out until it becomes something geological rather than selfishly human-centric. The thick haze of climate grief certainly hangs over the track but its lingering effect is one of generosity and spaciousness, inspiring a fresh appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things."

The album also received tremendous critical praise and was on the best of 2022 lists for many outlets, including NPR, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Uncut, and Brooklyn Vegan.

Album Status
Artist Name
Hurray for the Riff Raff
reissues?
new-release
Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
MP3
Price
1.29
UPC
075597905533
Label
96/24 HD FLAC
Price
1.39
UPC
075597905526

News & Reviews

  • Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra)'s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, is due February 23 on Nonesuch. Segarra created the album during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. They use their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. Though made in North Carolina by the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based Segarra and produced by Brad Cook, the record brings listeners to places far beyond, evoking vivid experiences of small shops and buffalo stampedes in Santa Fe, childhood road trips and Florida storms, struggles of addiction in the Lower East Side, and days-long journeys to outrun the cops in Nebraska. Hurray for the Riff Raff will lead a headline tour of the US and Europe from February through May.

  • The line-up for the 2024 Big Ears Festival—taking place in downtown Knoxville, TN, March 21–24—has been announced, including more than a dozen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future, in celebration of the label’s 60th anniversary in 2024: Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Tyondai Braxton, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brad Mehldau, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee), Davóne Tines, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Yasmin Williams.

  • About This Album

    A new version of the song "LIFE ON EARTH" by Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, was released on December 21, 2022. The track features Segarra’s friends and fellow New Orleans musicians, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and was recorded live in Esplanade Studios. 

    Segarra describes the track from their critically acclaimed 2022 album LIFE ON EARTH as, "A psalm to all earthly beings. A letter regarding the suffering of humankind which effects all on this planet."

    The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz named "Life on Earth" to the number one spot on her best songs of the year list, saying: "Alynda Segarra takes the long view on this elegiac, piano-driven hymn … As it progresses at its own unhurried tempo, the song, remarkably, seems to slow down time, or at least zoom out until it becomes something geological rather than selfishly human-centric. The thick haze of climate grief certainly hangs over the track but its lingering effect is one of generosity and spaciousness, inspiring a fresh appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things."

    The album also received tremendous critical praise and was on the best of 2022 lists for many outlets, including NPR, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Uncut, and Brooklyn Vegan.