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How to fool an incurable skeptic...
I read about this "Echoes" by The Rapture (a name taken from the title of a famous proto-rap track by Blondie) in all the magazines in solemn and misleading reviews in "next big thing" style. It seems that the master tape remained in a drawer for a year, waiting for the best offer. Mercury snatched it up, which, with great fanfare, presented the band as the highlight of last month. Given the premises, I'm a bit skeptical.
I put the CD in the player. Initial shock: Mattie Safer, the vocalist, has a voice similar to Robert Smith's, oh dear, it's a PLAGIARISM! Yes, I said it, the usual scam…
I move on to the second track, and the irritation for the vocal similarity already passes, Heaven is a wonderful track, and the music takes over. It is followed by the delicate Open Up Your Heart, where the slightly weak, off-key, and tremulous singing makes this piece intriguing, fascinating, definitely spleen, like Television. We're in the new wave or thereabouts territory, then. Now I'm fascinated.
Extraordinary echoes (it's fitting to say, given the album title) of P.I.L (Public Image Limited) in the brutal and engaging I Need Your Love, The Coming Of Spring, and even more so in the title track, which attacks with biting wild percussion in full swing. And what about the acidic House Of Jealous Lovers? Pure quintessence of a legend like Gang Of Four. Extraordinary.
And then, here and there, other echoes of electronic and techno, the modern touch to update. Listen to Sister Saviour (beautiful) which pumps like a nu-funk track by Talking Heads, but would also fit perfectly at a rave.
Guys, I'm won over! This is an album with great character. Sly, seductive, nervous, and adrenaline-pumping. A worthy successor to last year's galactic bomb that was "Turn on the Bright Lights" by Interpol.
Recommended for those who didn't survive the eighties...
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Olio (05:20)
I called you on the telephone 'cause I was lonely
I called you up just to hear you
Your eyes I know are a cold, cold blue
Pale whit skin dead like a mannequin
Seem to fade
Looking and not wanting to come up to date
Like a broken clock
The hand is still
Through the pain I was watching as sound hit my ears
We don't fit anymore
We don't fit anymore
Not the same
Not the same
Not the same, same, same
Ripped up in the shadows
Over and over again
I remember before as your mouth
It touched my face
Small hands grabbing me
Trapped in my thoughts
You repeating like a machine gun
Phantasmagoria
The times pelting me
Pelting me
Ripped up in the shadows
Over and over again
Over and over again
Over and over again
02 Heaven (03:47)
1234567
I'm floating in a constant heaven
1234567
I'm floating in a constant heaven
I can't believe that you came here today
And took me away
And you took me away
I can't believe that you came her today
And took me away
Took me away
And if you focus very hard
the train will come for you at last
And if you're stuck out in the yard
I can't believe that you came here today
And took me away
And you took me away
Too much condition and not enough game
It's driving me sane
Driving me sane
1234567
I'm floating in a constant heaven
04 I Need Your Love (04:39)
Visions of you or pictures in tabloids
I've seen no way out since I was a boy
Hold on to something that I know is near
Feeling much closer to holding my tears
Banter that shoots me through cannons and spillways
Forests and nights as I walk through these hallways
Kaleidoscopes eyes of killers come near
Feeling less desperate to hold in my fear
I need your love
Visions of you or pictures in tabloids
I've seen no way out since I was a boy
Hold on to something that I know is near
Missing the point as I fall through these years
I need your love
All I want, All I need
05 The Coming of Spring (02:42)
Get yourself together!
Get out of your head
Without outer persuasions
You're better off dead
Learn how to breathe
You'd better learn how to shine
These obser-ma-vations
Are mah-ma-ma, mah-ma-ma
Muh-ma-ma-ma-mine
Down on your knees
Pleading for life
Shards of a mirror
And twist of a knife
So get yourself together
Unwrapped ball of twine
These obser-ma-vations
Are mah-ma-ma, mah-ma-ma
Muh-ma-ma-ma-mine
No
(One heart) no, nah-no
(One heart) no, nah-no
(One heart) no, nah-no
(One heart) no, nah-no
06 House of Jealous Lovers (05:04)
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
Shakedown
House of jealous lovers
One hand ties the other
House of jealous lovers
House of jealous lovers
1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
6,6
7,7
8,8
07 Echoes (03:06)
The city breathing
The people churning
The conversating
The price is what?
The conversating
This place is heaven
And if you say that
They say is what?
Life makes echoes
If you see them
Life makes echoes
The conversating
This place is heaven
I put on lipstick
The price is what?
Life makes echoes
If you see them
Life makes echoes
Come together
Come together
Come together
Come together
Saint
08 Killing (03:37)
Killing with flange and with tape and with hendrix and
Killing with flange and with tape and with help
I am the one who cannot ever see cause
I am the one who cannot help myself
Oh, you're so bored
Trying to grab it
And you think that you have it
And you're wanting to know it
And you're trying to show it, but
You can't have it
No, you cant have it
No, you can't have it
No you can't have
Killing with flange and with tape and with Hendrix and
Killing with flange and with tape and with help
I am the one who cannot ever see cause
I am the one who cannot help myself
One, two, three, four
Kick that fucker out the door
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
Got to got to know
09 Sister Saviour (03:51)
Can you feel it
Sister Savior
Drawing you into the club?
Sister Savior´s
Past behavior
Has me falling in love
Hey-ey-ey-ey
Sister Savior
Hey-ey-ey-ey
Catholic lover
Why´d you leave me
For the good life?
At least our bad times were ours
Last night i had a dream
A warm field strawberries and cream
A poor man wearing rusty mail
With contentment plastered on his face
He was sipping from a bottle
On his forehead read the motto
"If I drink myself to death,
At least I´ll know i had a good time"
One last late night
Sister Savior
Before its too late
Hey-ey-ey-ey
Sister Savior
Hey-ey-ey-ey
You know i love her
Please belive me
This is the good life
And no more bad times could be ours
11 Infatuation (05:01)
You don't know by now
To take me down
Take me down
You don't know by now
To take me down
Take me down
Infatuation
You don't know by now
To take me down
Take me down
Infatuation
Infatuation
Infatuation
Infatuation with the girl
In the coat in the park
Infatuation with the girl
In the coat in the park
Infatuation with the girl
In the coat in the park
Infatuation with the girl
In the coat in the park
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