The Rapture: In The Grace Of Your Love

The Rapture
In The Grace Of Your Love
Rating: Meh

The fact that a new Rapture album has come out at all is a miracle unto itself. In the five years since the release of Pieces of the People I Love, the band has gone through a period of major changes, with lead singer/co-founder Luke Jenner leaving the band to deal with his mother's death and birth of a son, then returning after a pep-talk from James Murphy, only to have bassist and current frontman Matty Safer leave the band for good. Of course, 6 years away from the music business is almost an eternity and The Rapture come back to a very different landscape. Dance-punk appears to be on its last leg, overtaken by chillwave, dubstep, and other genres. Are The Rapture as relevant as they once were when "House of Jealous Lovers" kickstarted the whole indie dance rock blowup? It has been almost 10 years since Echoes dropped, which was beloved by most but was only hit or miss with me. It seemed hastily cobbled together after "House of Jealous Lovers" exploded. Follow up Pieces of the People I Love was a far more consistent album for me, feeling less like a collection of singles and more like a well-defined statement. In the interim, The Rapture had released a couple of one off singles, including a brilliant collaboration with Timbaland ("No Sex for Ben") that I hoped was a preview of things to come. It appears that direction was only short-lived, after many listens, In The Grace of Your Love holds a place between the band's last two records, appearing scattershot at times, while still having several tracks that stand with their best work. Unfortunately, the record as a whole just doesn't have a lot of forward momentum, and the back end of the record almost comes to a complete stop. I was searching for more experimentation and advancement with their sound and just wasn't finding any.

There are some wonderful tracks on the album. First single "How Deep Is Your Love?" is 6:30 minutes of house music bliss, the rise and flow almost near perfection.



"Never Die Again" locks into a wicked groove early, mixing the funk bass and horns to great effect, and becomes a classic entry in the band's catalog.



"Come Back to Me" has a strange woozy, dub quality to it, with haunting use of accordion.



"Miss You" has a goofy, loping bassline that fits well under the forceful beat and keyboards.



There were a couple of tracks that had The Rapture stepping outside their comfort zone. Title track "In The Grace of Your Love" uses blooping keyboards, art-damaged guitars, and an impassioned vocal from Jenner that sounds like electro-gospel.



And by far my favorite track, "It Takes Time To Be A Man," is a midtempo stunner, with a ramshackle, loose performance from the band, bolster by the most charming piano melody of the year.



These tracks would have been an excellent building block for an incredible album had they continued to press forward. Instead, and far too often, the tracks are either rehashed former ideas ("Children"), brief undeveloped sketches ("Can You Find A Way?"), or unlistenable dreck (the bafflingly annoying "Roller Coaster"). Had they took more chances the album might have had a chance, however, when you have been out of the game so long, any momentum you had gained just fades away.

There are enough glimmers of hope found on In The Grace Of Your Love to not write The Rapture off yet. Hopefully, this album is a way to get them back on their feet and back into the game. Six years is just a long time to be away from making music, especially if what you have to show for it is a relatively uninspired work.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.