Ryan's Review: "In the Grace of Your Love" by The Rapture

Score: 8.5/10

Dance punk. It's a genre of music that, before 2000, barely existed.

This movement was ushered in by acts like LCD Soundsystem, Death From Above 1979, and the band I bring to you today: The Rapture.

Way back in 2002, The Rapture dropped one of the most important and infectious songs of the decade, "House of Jealous Lovers" off of their critically acclaimed album Echoes. This fire ball of a song has a cowbell that could cure Christopher Walken's everlasting fever and a bass line that anyone would dance to. In 2010, the song placed #16 on Pitchfork's 100 Top Songs of the Decade list. In 2006, the band came back with the lukewarm and somewhat forgettable Pieces of the People We Love. A major-label effort that had a few solid songs but for the most part sounded bland and uninteresting, it was far too clean and polished for who they were, who they are. What it lacked was the energy the band had in its triumph, Echoes.

Fast forward to now.

The quartet has become a trio after a lot of internal struggle, the band has returned to their original indie label DFA, and they have just released their new album, In the Grace of Your Love. This sounds like the album that would've come between the raw Echoes and the very polished and clean Pieces. Grace begins with the very synth-heavy dance tune "Sail Away".  The combination of the keyboards and the drums and Luke Jenner's wailing voice are a magical combination. This song gives off a monster sized presence. When Luke lets out that first "sail" over everything you can feel the need to dance course through your veins and it's a feeling that you don't want to end.

The album switches right up to the great "Miss You", which is about the relationship between Jenner and his late mother. It's a bit screwed up with lyrics like "Always thought I could kill you/But oh I can't kill you" and "Broken dreams and broken faces/I've run all the darkest races", but the delivery and style are reminiscent of, in my opinion, Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". The highlight of this album is "How Deep is Your Love", which has the beat and piano of an old 80's workout video mixed with a cool rave sound that has bluesy vocals. The song is a romantic cry for a lost lover. They do a fantastic job of taking a really energetic danceable beat and juxtapose it with depressing lyrics like "when it stops/choices are few/it's just me and you/give me what I need to live". It's a cry for help. Jenner makes this apparent with his calls to let him "hear that song". He's desperate to get this person back in his life.

The downsides on this album are just forgettable songs, really. The song "Rollercoaster" sounds like an attempt at a Talking Heads song, and it does succeed at sounding like them but far more bland even with the fun bass line and the toms being banged away in the background. "Never Die Again" has a catchy tune to it, but in the end it feels like they took the middle of a song and played it to the end without the beginning.

Overall, the album does have some really killer songs, they're not all hits though. Does it compare to Echoes? No. But this is definitely a step in the right direction for the group to get back to the glory they had with Echoes. If you're looking for some fun, very layered, dance music, I highly recommend this album.

Tracks you'll love: "Sail Away" "Miss You" "How Deep is your Love?"

Tracks you can skip: "Roller Coaster" "Come Back to Me"

Track of the Week: "Proper" - Into it. Over it. - Into it. Over it. Is a pretty great example of pop-punk music today. Evan Thomas Weiss is a great lyricist and his band is my second favorite band off of the No Sleep Records brand. The song is catchy, short, and Weiss' voice is drizzled over the music nicely. This song is Jimmy Eat World-esque, so I recommend fans of them check this song out. To check it out, go to the band's website intoitoverit.com and click at the top of the page to stream it over at Alternative Press.