Review Summary: Get back on the dancefloor with The Rakes with a sense of self awareness
One of the forgotten bands that came through in the 2004/2005 wave of new indie bands taking the music scene by storm, The Rakes return with a rejuvenated sound that harks back to their punk roots. After perhaps overreaching themselves thematically and soundwise on the second album, The Rakes return to more similar territory of danceable rhythms, spikey guitars and wry lyricism on Klang.
While the first album Capture/Release was an ode to life as a 20 something city worker in London, trudging through a mediocre 22 grand job so as to be able to spend it all on getting horrendously drunk at the weekend and hoping for some romantic interest, The Rakes tried with limited success to become zeitgeist commentators on second album Ten New Messages, touching on issues like terrorism, paranoia and celebrity culture, reducing their fanbase and column space in the process. Uprooting themselves to Berlin for Klang, the band seem to have been able to leave the terror alerts of London behind to re-immerse themselves in the rock n roll lifestyle of interchangeable women and free booze.
'You are exceptional at being sexual, it's just ritual women use to get men' laments Alan Donohoe on opener You're In It before declaring 'I don't buy this idea of heaven, it's just God made in man's image; I'd rather be in hell with all the sinners, it seems more fun with the sex and drugs'. A bold declaration of the death of the thinking man as any other. The next song That's The Reason is a further ode to the art of attracting the opposite sex on dancefloors, with the reasons of action being to get in her 'taxi home'.
There are also songs exploring to sober aftermath of a big night out. The Loneliness of the Outdoor Smoker reflects those long moments where you are alone after the random strangers slapping your back are gone, and you realise you have reduced your lifespan by 5 years in the last month. While Shackleton is a self convincing rant on the way of life of drinking and smoking your last pennies away.
Coming in at 29 and a half minutes, Klang is a short and urgent blast of punk pop with a modern English twist that deserves to get indie dancefloors going. If you were ready to write The Rakes off before with some of their forgotten contemporaries Klang shows them more likely to stay around on the fickle lips of Shoreditch inhabitants for just a little while longer.
