Customer Reviews

Capture / Release

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Rakes are one of the best recent British bands. They blitzed into LA late last year and took the city by storm. They have brilliant songs like "Strasbourg" and "22 Grand Job." Their songs are about everyday and ordinary things. One of the best songs here is "Retreat." The remix is amazing too. There are some intense songs like "Open Book" and "The Guilt." They have some more dub reggae moments like in "Violent." The Rakes are hard to pin down. The mix all the best genres of music and create their own deal. This record has been released in England a while ago. They have conquered Europe. They are one of the bands ready to take over in America. This new American release includes the new song "All Too Human."

(This gets five stars compared to contemporary tunes. The music gods get extra stars)

I just listened to the cd, about five times in a row. They have some really good stuff here. The lyrics are fresh and smart, the sound is their own and infectious.

Here are some songs evaluated randomly in no particular order.
22 Grand Job repeates "22 Grand Job, in the city that's alright" over and over, a low point for me.
Strasbourg is sweet! Spy's in germany, vodka, fast rocking guitar, powerfull lyrics, I think there spies anyway... maybe revolutionaries. Have to give it more listens.
Terror! is funny and unerving.
We Are All Animals, Pub Club Sleep, and Open Book are songs that I listen to obsessively... I downloaded them months ago.
The Guilt is funny stuff, but by the end it has morphed into something else.

The personas the lead singer takes on can be funny, profound, icy, vulnerable, anxious, depressed, fun, helpless, jaded, any combination of those things, and other stuff too.

The album is about modern life. It's like the report from the street (by a really smart guy), not the view from a ivory tower. Moreover you get to spend some time in the really smart guy's life. It feels like you are *there*. Alan Donohue writes the words, and sings. They all sing actully.

I'm not going to attempt to describe the music. It's pretty clean and minimalist, I guess. I leave further description to people who are better qualified.

I like these guys about as much as Arcade Fire- don't know if that means anything, but there it is.

If you're looking for a great album from start to finish, look no further than the Rakes' Capture/Release. One of the albums to be in constant rotation on my 06 playlist, Capture/Release is pure rock'n roll. From the ridiculous guitar riff on "22 Grand Job" to the Clash-esque chorus of "Violent," the Rakes will have you pounding off solos on the ol' air guitar and wondering why all debuts can't be this much fun.

The Rakes are a great band. you can relate to their songs and some of the tracks are pretty funny. Retreat is an awesome single, included in this album. The band is still pretty unknown. They're only really popular in the UK and slowly starting to get attention in the US and Canada. They have been hyped by the NME for a while, like the band the Cribs. Now the Rakes have a debut album that proves that they are overall an a good band who know how to write and create good songs.

Dean Van Nguyen's 9/11/05 review pretty much sums up what I would have written, but the album only was released as an import to the US on Amazon at the end of September, so I couldn't write my own reaction to my advance copy or read any others until then! I recall that this band was part of a blink-or-you'll-miss-it "chav" rock London movement hyped by the press a couple of years ago. It's evidently taken a while for this album to appear; I had heard much of it as a live gig from Holland. I wanted the studio sound to bring out the full potential that I sensed might lurk in the grooves beyond a dodgy live recording.

Well, the comparisons to post-punk's giants work, but I sense that the Rakes may be like, say, the group "999" was to the punk/new-wave scene. That is, a competent band, but too late in recording to make much of a splash beyond a catchy tune; "High Energy Plan"'s title track for the old band; "22 Grand Job" for the Rakes. The voice, the attitude, and the songs all sound respectable, but like many of the New York bands of two years ago who aped that city's rediscovery of new-wave, our Rakes do not appear to give enough of an original twist on old favorites.

Those of us who were around for the first post-punk scene may, therefore, not hear as fresh a sound as younger listeners might. I had perked up my ears originally when this band was compared to The Fall. Perhaps this similarity emerges on stage, but it is not present on this album. It does pick up slightly in tension and committment after the first five tracks, but The Jam, Joy Division, and the gloomier side of the early 80s tends to swamp the grooves rather than spark a fresh sonic explosion. The band also should not shy away from longer songs--all on "Capture/Release" are very brief; the band could explore more of a groove and develop a richer atmosphere over more time per song. They tend to want to make a big ruckus in a short period, and this haste leads to premature waste of their spunk!

I do hope that the band sticks around, and--like The Jam--outgrows their first album's growing pains and takes on a more original approach that advances this appealing sound into a direction more reflecting their own musical evolution instead of what sounds too often here like a well-intentioned but ultimately rather sterile homage to the early 80s British era.

Yes, there are a lot of British bands that have come about as of late that have many of the same influences. Every generation of bands has its influences and they all borrow from those influences. So what... The Rakes are a great band. I don't care what their influences are and I can guarantee they are not sitting around thinking about who they want to sound like. They write songs and good ones at that.

I think that this album is one of the best albums of this year. It took forever for it to come out here in the US but thankfully the band streamed it on their website. I bought the album through Napster 3 or 4 months before it came out in the US and was glad I did. Being of a typical working class upbringing this album speaks volumes to me. Lyrically, I find myself saying "Yeah, that's how I feel..." as I sing along to the tunes. The guitar playing is great - thoughtful, sparse and right on. The driving simplicity of the bass lines has caused me to take out my bass and pluck along. The drumming is also top notch. Many times I have plugged the headphones into the ipod and played my drums along with the album. Seriously, these guys will only get better. I can't wait until they release new material.

I had the opportunity to see The Rakes live at the Troubadour in LA as they opened for some silly indie band. I have not been to a gig with that much energy coming from a band in a long time. Their set was tight - too bad the vast majority of the audience had no idea who they were... They were able to convert a lot of people by the end of their set though.

Yep... the songs are short and the album is short. So what... My life is not an epic. These guys write about normal people living normal lives. Save the epics for the progressive rock folks. The Rakes deliver a great song, period...

The Rakes are one of the best recent British bands. They blitzed into LA late last year and took the city by storm. They have brilliant songs like "Strasbourg" and "22 Grand Job." Their songs are about everyday and ordinary things. One of the best songs here is "Retreat." The remix is amazing too. There are some intense songs like "Open Book" and "The Guilt." They have some more dub reggae moments like in "Violent." The Rakes are hard to pin down. The mix all the best genres of music and create their own deal. This record has been released in England a while ago. They have conquered Europe. They are one of the bands ready to take over in America. This new American release includes the new song "All Too Human."

I just found this band by accident. I can say that is worth every cent. Most of the songs sound 80-British music. I highly recommend Work, Work, Work, Retreat and 22 Grand Job. Great album.

I listened to the disc through their website for free, then bought the cd through napster (it is not on the US itunes). These guys rock out. A mix of franz's bass and drums with the libertine's guitars and vocals like early joy division. if they release the song "retreat" as a single over here in the states they may blow up like franz did. get it now, and be cooler than everyone in your class by having it early.

This album is a riotous and &*%#ing brilliant rock trip from start to finish. These blokes make rock cool again! Remember when The Strokes did it? YA, it's like THAT!