In 2003, the Rapture was dance-punk's great commercial hope, a band that could blend the Sex Pistols and Donna Summer into something aggressively incendiary that also grooved. But American rock audiences tend to like things a tad more sonically palatable than the oft-grating dissonance the Rapture produced. As a result, the group has gone from a good punk band with great disco beats to just another stylishly distanced dance-rock outfit.

Granted, the Rapture still knows how to set bodies in motion, even without former producers and alleged masterminds DFA. "Get Myself Into It," the first single from "Pieces of the People We Love" (Universal), boasts an awesomely monstrous bass, while "Whoo! Alright-Yeah ... Uh Huh" reintroduces the cowbell, the instrument that will forever be linked to the Rapture.

And it's cowbell or bust with this band. Lyrics certainly aren't a selling point, not unless you enjoy the idea of an American band making a song that sounds like something a Japanese band would do if it knew exactly eight words of English. That's the only way to describe "First Gear."

Elsewhere, the patented Robert Plant shrieks of "Devil" are entertaining enough to forgive, even though the song's riff also steals from Zeppelin. But "The Sound" treads on Trent Reznor's copyright to synthesizer abuse and accomplishes nothing for its trouble.

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