The Rapture: In the Grace of Your Love

We're not supposed to care about the Rapture. Almost a decade after the party died down on the New York dance/punk revival, and fellow contemporaries Liars and Radio 4 had long since gone home, there was the Rapture, still dancing on their own. It should have been sad, embarrassing even. But like all great rock n' roll survivors, they've managed to weather that slump, and now find themselves ready to ride the latest wave of dance/rock revivalists led by the likes of Cut Copy and Hercules and Love Affair. With In the Grace of Your Love, they don't fumble their chance at a second coming. Ditching the Gang of Four-inflected grittiness of their earlier material, it's a record built solidly upon glossy Chic-styled and synth-centric disco. The incredible six-minute lead single "How Deep is Your Love?" which deploys a heaping load of hand claps, howling vocals, and a sexy sax behind a persistent piano line, provides the dance-floor climax of the year. If the rest of Grace can't match that incredible high, its remainder is still as remarkable as it is unexpected. Who would have guessed? The Rapture is the life of the party again.

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