Albums

The Rapture - Pieces Of The People We Love

Sam Floy 25/10/2006

Rating: 3/5

The Rapture have made a delicious debut album combining the many fragments of their talent and used them to conjure 'Pieces Of People We Love' - out now. Their standard songs blend into a progression of harmonies leaving you impressed and satisfied when listened to. They use woodwind in some tracks, most notably 'Get Myself Into It', which means that there is always something going on amidst all the layers of well-crafted melodies and constantly high pitched vocals.

Their songs always have a funky beginning that makes them sound almost electro with all the generated noise, this from the San Diego-come-New York band. Most of the other songs follow this same basic mould but all the individual tracks chip away at it to try and reclaim the feeling of diversity given by 'Get Myself Into It'.

I do feel that the Rapture boys peaked a little too early, flying out of the blocks on this 43m35s journey to impress, unable to sustain the quality of the first three cracking tracks and eventually their fatigue set in because after that early explosion they didn't return to their previous best. This is a high-charged, high-pitched and high-spirited album that dips in, but mostly out, of being rapid yet at times feeling vapid. Like all moderate athletes the Rapture suffer a burnout, especially after all the electro energy that was pumped out and so they are resound to tiredness by the end with songs like 'Calling Me' and 'Live In Sunshine'. 'The Sound' was closest to a late revival with its loud guitars and somewhat annoying whine sounding like digital interference, it is also ridiculously upbeat and busy which means that it is a half-decent album track as long as you don't have any dogs near by - who would have a fit at hearing such piercing noises.

The title track is a real piece of work that everyone needs to hear, particularly if you need a little uplifting. 'Pieces of People We Love' sounds like Gnarls Barkley and of course has its electro influences so you are guaranteed to start moving your body, add to that the harmonious calls of the band and the Rapture have found their winning formula to a top track.

So then, Pieces of People We Love is rather like a Kevin Keegan football team - they have three or four big hitters to impress everyone but anything beyond that is weak and has no real structure or strength to it. The American band have given a good representation of themselves just unable to last the test of time, hopefully there will be more because they show great potential.