Ra Ra Riot have shared “Friendly Neighbor,” the band’s new single follows previous release “The Wish.” Both tracks are now available to stream. “Friendly Neighbor” took a long road to completion, having been worked and re-worked several times over the past decade and spanning writing and recording sessions for several albums — including 2016’s Need Your Light and 2019’s Superbloom.

“I wrote the beginning of the lyrics one night while my neighbors were having a party,” explains Miles. “But it sort of more broadly turned into something about alienation, and how it feels like basic social interactions are breaking down because of the messed-up rewards of the internet. I felt like the walls we shared — it wouldn’t have mattered if they were three inches or three miles thick.”

Whereas the band’s previous single, the Rostam-co-written and produced “The Wish,” channeled the breezier finger-picking styles of Fairport Convention or The Band, “Friendly Neighbor” echoes the endearing creepiness of a late-70s Beach Boys album, featuring lyrics about clogged pipes and giant plastic lawn decorations that could be just as easily read as earnest as tongue-in-cheek. The protagonist grasps awkwardly at trying to reclaim a sense of human connection that may be more imagined or projected than real; whether his fantasies relate strictly to plumbing is left for the listener to decide.

Ra Ra Riot, has had a fruitful 2024: following the release of “The Wish,” the band reunited for a run of live dates before joining old friends Vampire Weekend on the road in July, supporting the group throughout the Midwest leg of their Only God Was Above Us tour. Ra Ra Riot’s “Friendly Neighbor”

Order Friendly Neighbor by Ra Ra Riot HERE