The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love (Vertigo / Mercury)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
It's quite possible that The Rapture can continue to be a great band without ever making a great record. You have to think about what the proper setting for their music is, and after a while pondering that question you'll have to admit that it's either live or for in a packed out club environment that these songs are written. I'm listening to 'Pieces of the People We Love' at three in the afternoon on a mildly sunny day, alone in my flat. It's just not the place for it.
Of course, great records can transcend time and space, but that the Rapture haven't made a great record shouldn't be held against them. They never promised they would. They only ever suggested that you'd get a fantastic soundtrack if you were witnessing their work in correct surroundings. And, much more so even than their debut 'Echoes', that's exactly what you get with 'Pieces of the People We Love'.
Sure, 'Echoes' had the singles, and there's no real zeitgeist capturing moment on 'Pieces...' such as its predecessor had with 'House of Jealous Lovers'. But where the first LP had moments of genius interspersed with filler and half executed ideas, the sophomore effort sounds infinitely more full, more realised, more fun. Basically, they now write much better songs far more consistently than they used to. And for a party band, that's great news.
They're better songwriters, but they're not better lyricists. The album's opening line irritatingly runs "high, high as the sky, low, low as it goes", and it doesn't get any more intellectually stimulating from there on in. But, stressing the point here, I know, The Rapture are not where you come for intellectual stimulation. The riff on that opener 'Don Gon Do It' won't invigorate the mind so much as it will the hips. It's catchy as hell.
So's a lot of it - the sax riff on the initially disappointing yet rewarding over time lead single 'Get Myself Into It', the incessant 'na na na's on the low down funk of the title track, the way one note is used with such fantastic urgency on 'The Sound' or the delicious funk of 'The Devil', a song that if any of Michael Jackson's currently employed team of Arab Sheiks and has-been producers manage to even nearly equal will lead to the biggest comeback since Jesus. Or Shaggy. It's probably 'Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh Huh' that epitomises 'Pieces...' best, however - a simple yet hugely effective groove underpins the Rapture's catchiest chorus yet, one stating that "people don't dance no more, they just stand there like this, they cross their arms and stare you down and drink and moan and diss..." Believe me when I tell you that they are a fantastic party band, nothing more, nothing less. Judging by those words, they're obviously fine with it.
The inevitable low points aren't disappointing as such, because in all honesty nobody should have really expected a Rapture album to stand up to as much scrutiny as it in fact does. I don't feel let down when I hear the uninspired groove of 'First Gear', or ill advised slump in the tempo that is 'Calling Me' because I expected something of their ilk to rear its head at some point, and I'm still dancing from the last tunes. There's a skip button on this thing, right?
You'll only need to use it a couple of times. Forget that The Rapture haven't made a life changing album, just dance to the fact that in 'Pieces of the People We Love', they've made one that'll enhance many of your evenings to come.
NOTE: 'Get Myself Into It' is available for streaming at the link below. Enjoy x
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