Get Caught Up In The Rapture
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 27, 2011 4:20PM
Photo by Ruvan Wijesooriya
A brief history of The Rapture: the band was at the forefront of the dance-punk movement in the early aughts and was DFA records' -- you know them as the label that the dude from LCD Soundsystem helps run -- first signing, then they released an awesome if somewhat bristling first album, then they signed to a Major and released a somewhat pedestrian and overly-glossy second album, then they almost called it quits, then one of them found God, the band got (mostly) back together to record a thrilling third album that they decided to put out on , yes, DFA records.
Whew!
That third album is In The Grace Of Your Love and it works the neat trick of combining all the group's previous sounds and brings them to new heights of exultation. This is dance rock in the best sense; this is music made for cathedrals of all sorts, be they dance clubs or sticky floored bars or actual honest-to-gawd spiritual centers of enlightenment. The thrust of any great dance song is that which seeks to propel you to another plane and while most accomplish this through well-set mechanisms meant to elicit automatic replies, The Rapture instead seeks actual emotional uplift in all that they do. The house beats are there alongside the rock drums while the vocals veer into an approximation of diva chant-worthy territory none of it sounds contrived. And while the machinations are familiar it all feels fresh. Lots of rock bands try to create club-worthy dance tunes but The Rapture is one of the few that actually succeeds in doing just that. We think the key to this accomplishment is that the group actually understands that the best dance tunes are honestly yearning and haven't a shred of fakery at their core. The quickest line to the heavens is the most honest one, right? And The Rapture has put together an album filled with so much earnest transparency grafted onto its buoyant grooves we're hard pressed to imagine who wouldn't want to get lost in the joy held within.
The Rapture plays tomorrow, September 28, at Metro, 3730 N Clark, 9 p.m., $15, 18+