The Rapture

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — held just a few weeks ago in southern California — has become one of the hottest summer music festivals in the nation. But if public support ever dwindles and event organizers have to cut costs, they needn't look any farther than the Rapture for a solution (a band that, not so coincidentally, was on the Coachella bill this year). It's simple, really: By using a group that already borrows LCD Soundsystem's modernized disco beats and adds a healthy dose of Cure nostalgia (courtesy of lead singer Luke Jenner's off-kilter Robert Smith parroting), organizers don't need to hire any pricey headliners. Still, it might not be wise to go all-in on a band as fluid as the Rapture, if the huge changes on its latest eclectic full-length, Pieces of the People We Love, are any indication. The contemplative tunes on 2003's Echoes have been replaced by fast and occasionally furious dance-punk (partly owing to Danger Mouse's production work on two tracks) that will transport you back to the late '70s in no time flat.