The Navigator is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band Hurray for the Riff Raff. It was released by ATO Records on March 10, 2017. The album was recorded in 2016 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Panoramic House in West Marin with producer Paul Butler, a member of the band The Bees.
Background
By the end of 2014, Hurray for the Riff Raff had managed to gain a wider audience following the successes of Small Town Heroes. Rather than immediately follow it up quickly by recording another album, frontperson Alynda Mariposa Segarra used the opportunity to travel back to their ancestral homelands in Puerto Rico and reconnect with their roots. Much of the album was inspired by their travels. They witnessed the effects that both the debt crisis and continual environmental damage had done to the communities, as well as the way Puerto Rican culture had continued to flourish despite the hardships that had been endured.
Segarra also returned to their childhood hometown in The Bronx to see how gentrification had affected the area since they had left to start their music career. These changes would also become central to the themes covered within the album. After returning from their travels, Segarra and the rest of the band decided to relocate from New Orleans to Nashville in order to start writing the new album.
Writing and recording
Segarra conceived The Navigator with a storyline following the protagonist Navita in an overgentrified city in the future. They based the character on themself as a 16-year old street kid. As They later told Drowned in Sound:
Once writing the album had been completed, the band then spent most of 2016 recording the album at Electric Lady Studios in New York and Panoramic House in West Marin. The band asked Paul Butler to produce the album, based on his work with British soul singer Michael Kiwanuka. Butler was hired with the aim to recapture the same sound he had brought to Kirwanuka's albums and combine it with the various musical influences of the places Segarra had visited. To accomplish the task an ensemble of musicians were brought in, including percussionist Juan-Carlos Chaurand and Devendra Banhart's drummer Gregory Rogove.
Segarra said, "I was listening to Kendrick Lamar a lot during the making of The Navigator. I started writing the lyrics for [the title] track on my phone, with no music. That's the part of the album where Navita starts to transform. I wanted it to sound very cinematic. I listened to a lot of Jorge Ben Jor too, especially his album Força Bruta. The strings on that album are gorgeous."
Release and promotion
The album was announced on December 5, 2016 alongside the release of the video for lead single 'Rican Beach'. Details on the tour to support the album were also listed, as well as a statement from Segarra regarding the album. In the statement Segarra wrote, "This is dedicated to the water protectors of Standing Rock—thank you for your bravery and giving us hope. Also, to the people of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, who are demanding an end to the AES dumping of coal ash which leads to water contamination—we are with you."
Two additional songs were taken from the album in order to promote it. The first of these two songs, 'Hungry Ghost' was released on January 6, 2017. Following the album's release in March, the final single - 'Living in the City' was unveiled on August 29, 2017.
For the Billboard charting week of April 1, 2017, The Navigator was the No. 2 album sold in the breaking-and-entry category by the Heatseekers Albums. In addition, the album was the No. 9 most sold Independent Albums, and it was the No. 7 most sold Top Tastemaker Albums. It also sold enough copies to attain No. 43 on the Top Rock Albums chart.
Critical reception
The Navigator received positive appraisal from music critics upon release. At Metacritic, the album holds a score of an 83 out of 100 based upon 18 selected independent ratings and reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".