THE RAPTURE

In the Grace of Your Love

[DFA]

It’s been mere months since electronica standard-bearer LCD Soundsystem played its final show, but the void left by its absence is wide and deep. New York dance-punk band the Rapture steps boldly into that breach with its first album in five years—released, as it happens, on LCD leader James Murphy’s DFA label. Despite the 2009 departure of bassist Matt Safer, the band hasn’t changed much during its absence from the studio. There are still propulsive bass lines, prismatic bursts of synthesizers and the occasional squall of electric guitar. The band dials in a jangling disco-funk sound on “Never Die Again,” piles glam-rock drums onto a deep, descending groove on “Miss You” and turns the refrain on the title track into a hypnotic mantra over a wash of cymbals and a repeating, hollow-sounding effect on keyboards. When you’re ready to hit the dance floor again, the Rapture will be waiting. –ED