New York-based The Rapture have always been a great band just waiting to happen and now, after thirteen years together, they’ve finally come up with the album their fans always knew they could make. In The Grace Of Your Love is definitely in the running for one of the best records to be released this year; it fuses their punky disco style with soul and even psychedelia, but there is also a thread of indefinable spirituality running through the songs which take it up to another level.

It’s been five years since the release of their last record and the band have been through a lot in the interim period – family tragedy, line up changes, singer and founder member Luke Jenner even quit for a while. They split with Universal Records and re-joined James Murphy’s DFA after almost ten years away.

These days, The Rapture’s original musical influences, British agit-funkers The Gang of Four and PiL, are not quite as pronounced as before. This new album, their fourth, is packed full of dancefloor anthems. In “How Deep Is Your Love,” the epic title track and “Come Back To Me,” with its accordion refrain, they invent a whole new genre of Inca disco. Jenners’ vocals are better than ever and the whole album glows with positivity. Full credit should also be given to legendary French producer Phillipe Zdar of Cassius and La Funk Mob fame for his excellent work on this release, following on from his credits on the recent Chromeo and Phoenix albums.

Since the demise of their DFA labelmates and in some respect protégés, LCD Soundsystem, people have been crying out for another band to fill the void, one that can combine cutting-edge dance music with genuine soul and honesty, which is too often missing in the contemporary music scene, in favor of this week’s hipster banalities. Hopefully, The Rapture have now become that band, but check them out at Razzmatazz and see for yourself.

Tickets €22 (advance) / €25 (door)

therapturemusic.com