Is it a hit, *hit or miss?

The Rapture - Echoes  by Dan Grote

The Rapture - Echoes 
Label: Universal Records
Rating: 

Half garage band, half New Order disciples, the Rapture are another one of those �the� bands no doubt, but instead of writing simplistic yet catchy songs in the classic rock vein, there seems to be more of an overall dalliance between dance beats and discordance and melancholia throughout most of the album, which is to say that one third of the songs make me want to put on black eyeliner and shake it like a Polaroid picture, another third make me want to sit in my room alone and cry, and the rest are just unnecessarily jarring in that way that most bad emo is.

The album�s best tracks are its dance tunes, especially �Olio,� �The Coming of Spring� and �House of Jealous Lovers.� �Olio� is the band�s welcome track, wherein the listener is greeted by a rush of synth sounds that wouldn�t be out of place at a Yaz garage sale. It should be noted that two of the band�s members play keyboards and all four play percussion of some sort; meanwhile the album still credits an additional keyboardist. It should also be noted that lead vocalist Luke Jenner sounds like Bono falling endlessly through the abyss.

�House of Jealous Lovers� has been touted as the band�s single, but �The Coming of Spring� catches the ear as well, mostly for the uncanny way it recreates Love and Rockets� �So Alive,� which was last heard on the �Rules of Attraction� soundtrack, a disc incidentally full of the same kind of �80s elec-goth.

As for the jarring tracks, �Heaven� interrupts the smooth beats of �Olio� with a sudden group chanting of �One two three four five six seven/I�m floating in a constant Heaven,� which is both a lame rhyme and sounds like the introduction to a song about feelings.� Meanwhile, the title track ends with a chorus of wailing �Come Togethers� (they actually sound like a chorus of �f*** yous�) that sounds like an emotional breakdown just for the sake of yelling, especially considering the mid-temponess of the following track, �Killing.�

Finally, there�s �Open up Your Heart� and �Infatuation,� the mellow cry tracks. Both songs sounds like they�d be at home on The White Album if nowhere else; instead here they interrupt the black dress affair that is the rest of this party. At it�s best, it�s an attempt at displaying variety; at it�s worst, whoever mixed this album needs to understand how to create an emotional flow, and not to harsh on my enjoyment of the beat.

VERDICT: There�s a lot of different kinds of sounds running around Echoes, but the album is at it�s best when it�s exploring its use of the simple dance track. The mellow and angry songs are nice, but they�re thrown into the mix in a way that messes with the album�s consistency more than it does display a wealth of range. Best for NYC hipster guys who put on makeup before hitting the faux-goth clubs.