The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love (Album Review)
Monday, 12 September 2011
Written by Ben Bland
It’s sad when bands that were formerly regarded as fresh and exciting slip into the totally mundane. Few bands capture such a slip as well as The Rapture. When they burst onto the scene they, alongside acts such as The Strokes, were seen as the future of indie music. The beguiling dance-punk of their 2003 breakthrough 'Echoes' seems a very long time ago and, judging by this record, the band aren’t likely to return to former glories any time soon.
What The Rapture needed from this release is a rabbit from the hat. They needed something that would remind everyone both that they still exist and that they can still create the lovable dance-inflected hooks of old. 'In the Grace of Your Love' is neither lovable nor hooky. Luke Jenner’s distinctive vocals, which were once so easy to like, now grate incessantly.
Listening to the record feels a little bit like listening to some demos that you were never meant to here. Nothing really sounds finished. Everything sounds like it is an idea waiting to be given some life. In fact, the best moments here are probably only engaging enough to be seen as hurried b-side material. When the band are at their best here they merely sound like passable LCD Soundsystem impersonators. Lead single 'How Deep is Your Love?' sounds like something James Murphy would have tossed in the trash can months before finishing one of his records. The saxophone tacked on to the end of the song is pretty much the most exciting moment on the record.
Where The Rapture once sounded like they could create something catchy or danceable without drawing breath now it sounds like it is painful for them to even create the simplest melodies or coin a song title. This really sounds like a band that has already given up. It’s five years since 'Pieces of the People We Love' heralded The Rapture’s chance to get back on an even footing but in a scene that is constantly wrapped up in looking for its next big thing that is five years too long. If The Rapture are still around five years from now then, judging from this mess of a record, that will be even more miraculous than if this record had been a rabbit from the hat after all. Goodbye The Rapture, it was nice knowing you.
'In the Grace of Your Love' is out now on DFA Records.
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What The Rapture needed from this release is a rabbit from the hat. They needed something that would remind everyone both that they still exist and that they can still create the lovable dance-inflected hooks of old. 'In the Grace of Your Love' is neither lovable nor hooky. Luke Jenner’s distinctive vocals, which were once so easy to like, now grate incessantly. 
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