Album Review: Pieces Of The People We Love by The Rapture

First time around, in 2003, New York's Rapture were the vanguard of the groovy back-to-1981 Anglophile crowd, for whom the Gang of Four's Entertainment! album was a sacred text. After a lean 2004/05, they find themselves fashionable again, this time for their inadvertent role in giving new-rave kids something to dance to. Aptly, their second album ramps up the party beats, but at the core of delirious songs such as First Gear is a nerve-jangling twitchiness that reassures you the Rapture are still awkward guys at heart.

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Produced by the team of Paul Epworth and Ewan Pearson (eight tracks), as well as Danger Mouse (two tracks), Pieces of the People We Love is much different from Echoes in that it's no patchwork (i.e., like four Primal Scream albums condensed into one). Additionally, Luke Jenner's potentially deal-breaking vocal tics of old, especially the Robert Smith-with-a-finger-caught-in-an-electric-socket caterwaul, are kept in check, while bassist Matt Safer's appealingly insolent presence on vocals is ratcheted up to several lead turns. The uniformity of the album is at the expense of clear-cut standout tracks.

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