Along with a lyrical focus inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near, which the band had been reading before they made the album, Ra Ra Riot incorporated more keyboards and synthesizers into many of the songs on Beta Love. This new technology-informed attitude represents a necessary change for a band known mostly for one thing.

The keyboards stabbing at Beta Love opener “Dance With Me” set the tone for the album’s overall harder, faster tempos, which peaks during the machine-gun drums on “Binary Mind,” one of the songs that speaks most directly to Ra Ra Riot’s concern with Kurzweil’s transhumanism: “Why, tell me why/ I want to read you with this binary mind/ ‘Cause if I do/ I’m sure that we’ll be complete.” […]