Fashionably late

I try not to post too much music that's readily available at other Internetly places, especially when it comes to "hot new releases". But the new Rapture album came across my radar, and hearing this comeback effort, I couldn't help but remember the music climate of the early 'aughts, when you couldn't throw a stone in New York and not hit a dancepunk band of variable cruddiness.

It was a nice triumph of the erudite music nerds taking over the dance floor and dictating the soundtrack. But at the same time, this band kinda sucked. In ways I found hard to articulate. Partly, it was the blatant rip-offs — I'm all for artless vocalizing if it's your own artifice at least (cough, John Lydon, cough). But mostly it was the slicking up of a band that was frankly neither very tight nor had much to say. The sight of gyrating indie kids was an interesting novelty, but could you really call the music "infectious" in itself? The labored danceability seemed like a stumbling mile from the silky ease of tracks like any of these, to pick examples right off the top off this 'blague. As for lyrical content, some things are best not recalled.

I'm sure they're nice guys, with good influences and intentions. But as ubiquitous carriers of the new thing, they underwhelmed. Which made the cultural noise around them both irritating and disappointing. And so the bits I liked (and there were) caused a strange cycle of aesthetic pleasure, guilt, and anxiety. A little like the kid compelled toward a crush and yet finding everyone reason to be repulsed and then turning that tension inward.

Anyway, this new album has them all growed up and yet seeming quite lost. They try lots of styles, which are adequately, if unconvincingly, executed. So why am I posting the title track. Hmmm. Empathy? Mr. Once Popular trolling for new friends in the cafeteria? Not to diminish the strengths at work. The song's catchy, triumphantly hypnotic, the caterwauling seemingly inspired, and maybe that's enough. Maybe I'm still trying to fall for them.

The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love