Muddiest Point #2

So I think I understand the difference between random access and serial access pretty well. However, when we were discussing the RAM component of the computer, I was a little confused about which part of memory retrieval it actually does. I wrote in my notes that it assigns "addresses" to different pieces of information. Does it also do the work of retrieval? Or does it just tell some other component which address to go to? Does it store the info or just do the work of labeling?