Just picked up a cool new album from The Rakes, an underrated rock band from London. It’s hard to believe this band isn’t more well known in the states. I’ve thought of a few ways to describe their sound: Blur if they did punk exclusively, Bloc Party if they were smarmier, The Strokes if they hailed from London. But really I detest those descriptions, as they make The Rakes sound unoriginal.
On the contrary, this band sounds quite fresh on most of their tracks. For example, they do great social commentary, specializing in the topics “regrettable things that happened after several pints” and — somewhat surprisingly — fear of terrorism. Somehow, this all comes across as upbeat britpop.
But enough of my bubbling enthusiasm. Check out this video for their single “1989,” from the new album Klang. I think it’s import only at this point, but I found a great deal on cdwow.us. The album is less than 30 minutes, but it’s great fun. I also recommend their debut album, Capture/Release.
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[…] new rock albums. In previous posts this year, I’ve exalted fresh discs by Glasvegas and The Rakes. Today I’d like to swoon (you’ll get the pun in a second) over the latest work by […]