It’s A Walk In The Park

The Rapture “Pieces of the People We Love” – The Rapture’s breakthrough album Echoes was dominated by a visceral sensation of desperation and panic which, in combination with the music’s strong house and disco influences, yielded a sound that closely approximated the inner workings of a neurotic introvert attempting to break free of their fears and become a dancing, romancing, fully functional party person. The long-delayed follow-up to that record is not nearly as full of angst, though its extroversion still seems forced, though not even remotely insincere. Part of the Rapture’s appeal, especially back in 2002/2003, came from the fact that they were quiet indie boys who were willfully surrendering to dance music, and the subtext of the album mirrored exactly what was going on with many indie-centric critics and fans at the time.

Pieces of the People We Love is a generally positive, upbeat set of songs, but its most interesting moments come when the group seems to be surveying a post-Echoes indie landscape packed with bored, arms-crossed fans with bad haircuts watching shitty “punk-funk” bands and wondering if they ever really made a difference at all. They initially come off like overbearing Dance Commanders on the brilliant “Whoo! Alright Yeah…Uh Huh,” but by the time the song reaches its singalong breakdown and “I used to think life was a bitter pill, but it’s a grand old time” postscript, it’s clear that they are only nagging you to get out there and live it up because they really, really care about you. The Motown-biting title track reinforces the impression that they’re all about the love; that they weren’t joking around when Luke Jenner was pleading “I need your love!,” but there’s something less needy in the song and on the album as a whole. It’s not quite confidence, but perhaps the realization that they aren’t going to wither and die alone and unloved if their short term gambits do not work out in their favor. (Click here to pre-order it from Insound, who have it on sale for $7.99.)

Elsewhere: My review of the Outkast film Idlewild is up on The Movie Binge.