The Rapture: In the Grace of Your Love

The first track from the Rapture’s new album, “Sail Away,” isn’t some amended cover version of the similarly named ’80s prom staple by Styx, but it’s nearly as overstuffed. In the Grace of Your Love, the fourth album from the NYC dance-pop outfit, embodies a distended, sickly slick soul-pop vision whose single redeeming aspect is its manifest departure from the group’s early work. That is, at least the Rapture has the common sense to not rehash the flailing synth-punk that landed it on the map. But the truth is that Grace just isn’t very good; aside from a few interesting anomalies - the disco-fabulous would-be gay club anthem “Never Die Again” or the searing, soaring “Blue Bird” - the album is a punctured pool float, deflating as it goes. And even at its best, the band can’t do much to mitigate singer Luke Jenner’s increasingly shrill vocal stylings, more grating than ever while saying even less. (1 out of 5 stars)