Music

It’s been three years since The Rapture released their debut album, ‘Echoes’. Three long years in which their then-groundbreaking (unless you’re Lizzy Mercier Descloux or A Certain Ratio) punk-funk sound has been adopted and co-opted by everyone from Hot Chip to Test Icicles. So how have the progenitors remained relevant? Simple. By shuffling three years along the musical timeline and ditching punk-funk for new wave disco. The result of this stylistic evolution is, improbably, The Rapture’s party record. And it’s a hell of a party, too. The sort of bashment that makes you a lot of friends and keeps you in gossip for a year.Fans of the band’s previous stripped-down, funky-yet-austere approach will be shocked – shocked! – to hear this record’s outright get-down boogie assault.

It’s defining sounds are summery ’80s pop, handclap rhythms, girl group harmonies and dancefloor synths, everywhere. Even the song called ‘Down For So Long’ is a cheerful, busy floor-filler, so you can imagine the kind of roof-on-fire breakdown you get from ‘Whoo! Alright – Yeah... Uh Huh’. But what sets ‘Pieces…’ apart is that it works so well as a complete album. Even the relatively disappointing single ‘Get Myself Into It’ is given a new lease of life when put into such a thrilling context, and lighters-in-the-air closer ‘Live In Sunshine’ is the perfect kiss goodnight.