| · Holy Zeitgeist!
First off – it’s about bloody time. It sat on a shelf since last August (for the sake of waiting for "the right time" – a.k.a. "the best moment to sell the most records"). As a result, The Rapture’s Echoes arrives with more hype and trepidation than any other record released in the 12 months since its completion. Seeing how bumpy the group’s two previous mini-LPs were (1998’s lo-fi Mirror and 2001’s Sub Pop-released Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks), can the Rapture even manage to compile a tolerable full-length album? Have they waited too long? And hey, what’s the point if all of the best tracks have already made their way out through heavily reprinted 12-inch records and every second punk-funk compilation under the sun?
Easy – Echoes is one of the finest debut albums released since I started buying records in 1984. Everything from The Gang of Four, Joy Division, new wave, no wave and the best of ’80s college rock right on through to the entire New York City renaissance is speared full-on here, and the whole damned thing is flawless.
Check the way "Olio" re-imagines the Cure gone electro. Then there’s "I Need Your Love," a slice of aggro-disco that tosses in circa-’79 chime bells and what sounds like someone stepping on a trumpet, alongside the almighty "House Of Jealous Lovers," by now the de facto shout-along anthem of the nouveau punk-funk generation.
Further credit where credit’s due: Echoes’ success comes thanks in no small part to the production team (Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy of the equally brilliant LCD Soundsystem), whose sonic imprints are all over it and mark perhaps the finest union of sorts behind and in front of the soundboard since Bowie met Eno in Berlin.
The best compliment I can give is to admit I never thought I could dance until I first heard The Rapture and suddenly couldn’t control myself. Now I dance, dance, dance to The Rapture and everything feels alright. Who could ask for anything better than that?
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