Average Metacritic score 73 (25 reviews):
http://www.playlouder.com/review/+pieces-of-the-pe/
The Rapture
Pieces of the People We Love (Universal)
US Release date: 12 September 2006
Rating: 40
Let's get the hard facts out of the way first shall we? This sloppy bunch of bandwagon jumpers have been hanging round like a bad smell for what seems like ages. And despite a clutch of fairly good singles ('Sister Saviour', 'Alabama Sunshine') and one bona fide work of genius ('House of Jealous Lovers' DFA mix) anyone with any sense was underwhelmed by the dog turd in the swimming pool that was 'Echoes'. James Murphy's golden touch didn't transfer to the rest of the record and the end result was some kind of terrifying car-crash involving The Cure and The Farm.
Well prepare yourself to be merely whelmed. This time Ewan Pearson and Paul Epworth are making everything sound like a wasp in an empty ice-cream tub and making all the instruments sound dime store cheap. 'Don Gon Do It' is a fourth formesque shambolic 'funk' jam replete with embarrassingly awful drug cliches. "High. High as the sky." I mean, Christ, if this track was a child you'd slap it with an open palm. Some of the 'All Cats Are Grey' Asperger's yelping has been reigned in admittedly but it resurfaces on the insufferable first single 'Get Myself Into It'. Presumably it is medically possible to take enough cocaine to make this joyless 80's radio friendly ska stomp sound any good without killing yourself but to these (relatively) untainted ears it sounds like Madness circa 'Wings Of A Dove'. With fucking Sting on vocals. And again with the lyrics: "Gotta get myself into it. Do you want to help me do it?" You've just rhymed it with it Walt Whitman. The only thing you need get yourself into is a barrel. Full of glass. At the top of a crumbly cliff edge.
And so it goes on sonic cliche after awful lyrics after terrible synth settings after lazy drum beats after... well, you get the picture. We have to get as far as the last two songs to get any quality. 'The Sound' is a dementedly squally rocker, 'Never Enough' guitars, 'You Trip Me Up' feedback and a remedial take on the 'Tomorrow Never Knows' elliptical drum beat played at twice the speed. 'Live In Sunshine' is a medicated and lazy psychedelic track and is the sort of thing that the Brian Jonestown Massacre often attempt but rarely achieve. So burn these two tracks, nail the CD to a brick and throw it in the canal. File next to !!! and Out Hud as only capable of the occasional good single.
John Doran
reviewed on 15 Sep 2006