The Rapture

More than five years have elapsed since the Rapture dropped club smash "House of Jealous Lovers." The New York dance-rock quartet has finally delivered another disc that defies listeners to sit still. While this mix CD may not include any of the band's own music, Tapes reflects its members' broad tastes hinted at via their work with LCD Soundsystem, Danger Mouse, and tech-house titan Ewan Pearson.

Kicking off with psychedelic soul by the Undisputed Truth, the 22 tracks span myriad flavors from hip-hop to minimal techno, blended via deft segues. Vintage disco (August Darnell's big band arrangement of the Irving Berlin show tune "I'm an Indian, Too") flows beautifully into the genre's contemporary incarnation (Thomas Bangalter's "Club Soda"). Even the percussive underground grooves of go-go are represented via the "The Word," a killer Def Jam joint by the aptly named Junkyard Band. The only thing not included is modern-day postpunk. Yet even as the Rapture steers clear of its stock-in-trade sound, the group recaptures its past glory.