In the Grace of Your Love

Here The Rapture transitions back to a trio after the departure of longtime member Mattie Safer and makes a clean break from its inspired dance-punk revivalism. A slightly more somber tone reflects recent life-changing events in frontman Luke Jenner’s life, such as becoming a father and losing his mother to suicide. Exuding a smoother and more cerebral dance-club vibe, *In the Grace of Your Love* simultaneously celebrates and parts ways with his recent past, both lyrically and musically. *In the Grace of Your Love* is indeed a more mature record and delivers an astounding number of delightful surprises. Hints of gospel are interwoven with bouncy dance beats and balkanized accordion snippets on “Come Back to Me”; the yearning, melancholic stomper “Sail Away” morphs effortlessly into a Sun Ra melting pot; “Never Die Again” revisits 1978 Blondie, with a killer verse/bridge/chorus combo propelled by gusts of gliding horns, glittering disco guitar, and clattering percussion. Like its labelmate YACHT, The Rapture works in a rarefied arena of dance-pop that’s smart, sophisticated, and deeply pleasurable.

From the original press release, September, 2011: The release of The Rapture’s long-awaited third album In The Grace Of Your Love marks the dawn of a new chapter in the bands history and a welcome return to DFA Records family, having re-signed with the label that released some of their most acclaimed early singles, and whose founders James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy produced their debut album Echoes. Together with French producer Phillippe Zdar (Phoenix, Beastie Boys, Chromeo) they have crafted and shaped a bold and euphoric album that sounds definitively and distinctly like The Rapture and no one else. Through the course of its eleven tracks, you can immerse yourself as waves of lyrical optimism and introspection crash between angular guitars and pulsing synthesizers, pounding drums and into sweet rhythmical lullabies. This is the sound of The Rapture re-engaged and revitalized with a voice as clear as they ever had. In The Grace Of Your Love was recorded at Motorbass, Paris and Gary's Electric in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The galvanizing New York dance-punk trio returns with a long-anticipated third album that sounds like the Rapture without retreading past successes. It's a nifty trick that underscores the band's hard-won identity and it happens to come at a time when house and disco are more fashionable than any period since the early 1980s.

Though The Rapture wore the Next Big Thing tag with more grace than some mid-’00s contenders—see “Mooney Suzuki, The”—the New York art-rockers’ bid for mainstream success was a bit of a letdown, given that it led them away from the atmospheric, beat-crazy post-punk that won them so many fans in the first place. Give…

In The Grace of Your Love does not reinvent The Rapture, not even superficially. The New York dance-punk originals are…

Check out our album review of Artist's In the Grace of Your Love on Rolling Stone.com.

Dance records are typically coated in layer after layer of sound, tracks of synth piled atop one another like a cake with so much icing that it oozes through the sides.

It’s been a long time since The Rapture’s last album. Not The Avalanches long, obviously, but five years is a good old stretch.

The Rapture has put their heart on the line, and they want you to know that, indeed, they mean it.

The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love review: Luke Jenner knows that we're all children. Do you?