Track of the Week: The Rapture: House Of Jealous Lovers (2002)

There is something special about this song. It announces its arrival with doubled electronic and acoustic drums and, of course, the utterly manic cowbell. Sloppy, restless and desperately intense, the cowbell sets the tone for the rest of the song - The Rapture are by no means excellent musicians, but every instrument, from Luke Jenner's scratchy, Gang of Four/PiL style guitar mangling and tortured Robert Smith-esque vocals to Matt Safer's driving bass, is played with an almost overwhelming enthusiasm and energy. The Rapture appeared in New York at the turn of the century, inspired by both the post punk music of the late 70s/early 80s and early 90s Madchester. Impressed by their energy, producers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy of DFA took them under their wing and produced their first album and 'House of Jealous Lovers', the band's signature song. Sonically, the song is framed by the DFA's production - the electronic and acoustic production and cowbells are favourite techniques of theirs. Luke Jenner's vocals never amount to much more then him shouting 'House of! Jealous Lovers!', but that hardly matters. The song's strength comes from the way it embraces the sound and style of dance music in the same way that the original post punk bands did - helped, no doubt, by the DFA's in-depth knowledge of the era. The song's simplicity, the regular breakdowns - at one point including a fantastically sloppy solo from Jenner, and the prominence of the drum and bass lines, are all taken from dance music. Of course this was nothing new in any way by 2002, but it had been a while since indie music had so openly embraced the dance floor - 'House of Jealous Lovers' is meant to be a dance track rather then a rock track. The fact that it fails somewhere along the way and falls somewhere in between is simply part of its charm, in the same way that the band's effort to keep up with the DFA's programmed drum beats is part of the song's appeal. Also, though this may be more because of the DFA's involvement then The Rapture's - but big deal - the song's economy and use of space echoes the original post punk bands more accurately then the host of post punk revivalists who followed in The Rapture's wake and perhaps somewhat missed the point. Bands like Maximo Park and Bloc Party over fill their music with too many parts, losing the sparseness and dub-like feel of much vintage post punk and sounding quite messy - not in a good way - in the process. Many of the post-punk revivalists would have perhaps done well to turn to The Slits' mantra - 'If in doubt, leave it out'. Nothing in 'House of Jealous Lovers' is extraneous. And although even The Rapture themselves have struggled to equal its giddy peaks, today, as the post punk revival fades away amidst the return of brain-dead pub rock, The Rapture's signature song stands as a reminder of what could have been, and why there was a post punk revival in the first place. And to this day, whenever I hear that cowbell part, my heart beat starts racing.