New Music Reviews - 9/6/2011 - The Rapture, The Chemical Brothers, and Grace Jones

The Rapture In The Grace of Your Love - The post-punk revivalists who are not afraid of also incorporating electronica music return from their five year album hiatus to release this new disc of eleven tracks.  Recorded primarily in Paris and New York, former Phoenix and Beastie Boys producer Phillipe Zdar gets to put his stamp on this release.  I saw the band perform in 2004 or 2005 and they put on a really great show.  So let's hope their touring again to promote this new album.  Before we rush out an get tickets though, we should probably find out if their new album is any good.

The album opens with "Sail Away" which doesn't bring much new to the scene but it does a good job of setting up the listener to go on a journey with the band as it sneakily ratchets up the level of anticipation with the way the song builds.  "Miss You" is a song with smooth electric guitar work, engaging keyboards and synthesizers, and a catchy hook that echoes their past work while still managing to sound contemporary.  "Come Back to Me" is actually an accordion driven song that manages to get stuck in your head with it clever lyrical wordplay and well-sung vocals.  "In the Grade of Your Love" shows the band hasn't lost touch with the electronica roots that were planted on their previous albums behind some beguiling vocal and synthesizer work. 

Overall, there are some fantastic tracks on In The Grace of Your Love but the album as a whole seems to be lacking a constant direction or consistency.  Once you are able to finally lose yourself in the music over a couple of tracks then suddenly a nonsensical track like "Roller Coaster" gets thrown in and totally throws off the funky, euphoric vibe the album was able to create up until that point.  The effect is so jarring that it takes a couple of tracks before you can settle yourself down again.  Thankfully, it only happens a couple of times but it is still enough to bring down the total score for the album. The Rapture is able to recapture the sound that helped distinguish themselves over a decade ago without sounding dated or derivative of their past success--they just are not able to do it over the length of the entire album. 

Score: 7/10
Song(s) to Sample: "In The Grace of Your Love" [sample it below] and "Miss You"

The Chemical Brothers Hanna Official Soundtrack - Hanna is the story of a Finnish teenage girl trained by her father to be an assassin who is sent on her first mission.  The groundbreaking British electronica music duo The Chemical Brothers scored the film and this album release is timed to coincide with the DVD release of the film.  It's a toned down album for the duo, going for a more David Byrne or Thomas Newman-esque film score relying on jaunty, instrumental melodies rather than the big beat techno we expect from the two.  On a couple of tracks they take a more industrial electronica/Detroit techno slant to add an extra edge to the music.  Not their best release by any means if taken alone but the music works well with the film and stirs the appropriate emotions for each scene.

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "The Devil Is in the Beats" [sample it below] and "Car Chase (Arp Worship)"

Grace Jones Hurricane - The former supermodel, actress and singer releases her first album in over 20 years; a two-discer with the second disc mainly giving us remixed versions of the songs from the first disc.  The music presented by this former Bond girl (and I just watched A View To A Kill this weekend!) is electro-heavy dub and trip-hop jams with Jones providing subdued vocals on each track.  My question is, though, the powers-that-be couldn't have released this album a few weeks ago to steal some of the sheen from the new Conan: The Barbarian movie?  Jones' vocals haven't really changed much over the years meaning she doesn't showcase the greatest range by any means but she and her team at least do a decent job of picking songs where that doesn't become a factor.  There's nothing special or can't miss on the album but, then again, I've heard many worse releases this year as well.  And you gots to love that album cover!

Score: 5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Love You to Life"