THE RAPTURE
Pieces of The People We Love
Mercury/Universal
· The moment has passed for The Rapture’s coked-up, sexed-up dance rock dandy music, and this album offers far too little, far too late.
Sounding like a third-rate parody of their previously stylish selves, The Rapture have made their not-so-triumphant return with Pieces of The People We Love. Devoid of any admittedly flawless dance floor staples like "House of Jealous Lovers," slow burning Cure-inspired numbers like "Love is All" or crazed rockers like "Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks," the once awesome act are now skirting dangerously close to Hot Hot Heat territory, and as anyone with half a brain can attest, that’s a pretty sucky place to be.
OK, OK, so what about the songs here? Well, opener "Don Gon Do it" borrows that echoed vocoder trick from Imogen Heap’s equally awful "Hide and Seek," then slips into a terribly annoying middle section, replete with synth sounds that wouldn’t sound out of place on a dated Duran Duran record. And cowbells. There are fucking cowbells all over this album. Come on guys, give it up.
First single "Get Myself Into it," with its messy Dead ’60s post-punk guitars and snaking James Chance saxophones, will have you singing its chorus and trying to shake it from your head at the same time. The skittery drums of "Callin Me" are cool, but the song kind of sounds like bad Radiohead. "First Gear" is easily the worst track The Rapture have ever laid down (the chorus is "my my my M-M-Mustang Ford" for Chrissakes). And then the shamelessly cheesy disco stomper "Whoo! Alright-Yeah… Uh-Huh" just rules so incredibly hard that it sounds out of place. So, get that song, then the new Justin Timberlake album if you want real progressive, fun music you can shake your ass to. Sorry Rapture, but you’ve finally proved how irrelevant you really are.
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