The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love

I've only given this one a preliminary spin, so these are more first impressions: The Rapture have made the transition from dance-punk to full blown white-boy funk. This record sounds a bit cleaner and more professional than Echoes, and the song writing seems to be a bit more consistent. At the same time, it seems to lack some of the immediacy and raw energy of their previous work. I feel safe in predicting that this will not repeat as Pitchfork's record of the year.

At the same time, it's kind of making me nostalgic for the first time I heard their last record, right around the same time I picked up !!!'s Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard. Man, those records were so fucking hot back then. I had such a blast shaking my ass that summer, and probably the danciest show I ever went to at Cambridge's Middle East was the Rapture show for Echoes. RIP Dance punk. This comes out on the 12th in the states, pick it up and find out for yourself if love the white boy funk.



Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

So fans of Mr. Linkous have been waiting for a long time for a new record, and we finally have one. This is definitely another chill, catchy lo-fi affair. It also wins this year's award for most outright Beatles's theft, but it's clearly intentional and meant in tribute. And on top of it, it's done so well that I don't really care at all, in fact I totally dig it. I wish other folks would rip off the Beatles this well. That's not to say that every tune on the record sounds like a Beatles track; in fact, most don't. But when they do, they really really do. There's nothing really new here in the Sparklehorse formula, except that I hear hints that Mr. Linkous has been listening to a little Brit-Pop over the last few years. Actually, he's probably been listening to it for much longer than that, I just hear it come out more on this record than some of his others. Anyway, if you like any of the other Sparklehorse records, you'll probably like this one a lot too. This comes out in about a month.