The Rakes Album: "Capture/Release" Release Date: 09/27/2005 Label: V2 Rock-Rev Value: [7.0/10] Genre: Rock Styles: Indie Rock Buy It

Tracklist:

1. Strasbourg
2. Retreat
3. 22 Grand Job
4. Open Book
5. The Guilt
6. Binary Love
7. We Are All Animals
8. Violent
9. T Bone
10. Terror!
11. Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)

The Rakes Offical Site

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review by:Yahoo
reviewer: James Marshall
Allmusic Album Value: (7/10)

By now, the idea of four seemingly underfed young men squeezed into skin-tight jeans playing - oh dear - angular art punk is enough to inspire the rolling of eyes and a long sigh of boredom. Why bother when there's a copy of Wire's "Chairs Missing" lying around, right? And yet, as Britain comes to resemble the opening credits of "Monkey Dust", it would appear that a voice in the wilderness addressing these anxiously fraught times comes from…er…four seemingly underfed young men squeezed into skin-tight jeans playing…well, you know the rest.

The Rakes have certainly come in for some flak of late. Be it singer Alan Donohoe's "Tonight-Cat-I'm-going-be-Ian-Curtis" style of performing or that on first encounter the East London quartet could be any one of the hopeless urchins that The Libertines dragged in their sorry wake but lending The Rakes an ear becomes an increasingly rewarding experience.

As a snapshot of metropolitan life in 2005, "Capture/Release" not only hits the spot, it damn near rubs it out. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, The Rakes' debut is by turns profoundly unsettling and savagely funny as each song is propelled by a seething sense of purpose.

"Retreat" is the story of an empty social life fuelled by a peer pressure that ups the ante to new levels of mindless stupidity while the grimly hilarious "The Guilt" raises a knowing laugh as Donohoe chronicles the consequences of drunken, casual sex: "I just woke up in someone else's bed/She was overweight/What did I do last night?/I found paradise in between her thighs/It was quick and nice/Now I'm feeling cold as ice." It's precisely this emptiness that lends "Open Book" an added poignancy when Donohoe sings, "Turn on the TV/It's 2AM, there's nothing on/I just need something to focus on".

As evidenced on "22 Grand Job", even work proves to be another mundane activity as the rat race conspires to crush any sense of individuality but it's on "Terror!" that The Rakes become creepily prescient as the protagonist dreads the inevitable attack on the capital: "Every plane a missile/Every suitcase a bomb/There's no reason in my head now/Only fear in my bones."

"Capture/Release" isn't an album to be enjoyed exclusively by Londoners. The experiences of "Work, Work,Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)" are universal enough and besides, songwriters Alan Donohoe and guitarist Matthew Swinnerton inform their vignettes with themes and situations that are recognisable to all but a few hermits. More importantly, "Capture/Release" works as a documentation of the here and now and one that should stand the test of time.

Original Link

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review by:Pitchfork
reviewer: Brian Howe, September 9, 2005
Album Value: (6.3/10)

As of this writing, the meme spreading like memefire through the UK press seems to be that the Rakes are doing for London's indie denizens what Mike Skinner did for its chavs-- making mountains of their molehilly tribulations and turning music's often abstracted focus onto a particular modern niche. And it's true that everything about their debut, Capture/Release, screams NOW, from the nervous post-Wire guitars familiar from Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs, to the tattoos-under-starched-shirts lyrical purview, to the Paul Epworth production. Unfortunately, Capture/Release might be the victim of bad timing: It's going to sound pretty rote to American audiences who've been steeped in this stuff for the past couple years, and while it's doubtful that the Rakes are overtly ripping off any of the bands they resemble, it scans as a failure of imagination on the listener's end.

Art Brut's mundane, declarative statements are funny as hell, balanced perfectly on the sincerity/irony axis, and Skinner's are richly detailed. The Rakes aren't as witty as Art Brut, and they lack Skinner's close scrutiny, but their lyrical slant-- revolving around the working trendy person's guilt and ennui-- is not without interest. "Retreat" sets the tone for the album by swinging wildly between earnestness and apathy. "Everything is temporary these days," Alan Donohoe laments. But in a record that's all about jaded acquiesce, he immediately gives up: "Might as well go out for the third night in a row." After wondering whether he should donate his money to a charity or go on holiday, Donohoe succumbs to malaise: "Walk home, come down, retreat to sleep/ Wake up, go out again, repeat." The working man's blues even creep into the paranoid "Terror!": "And my job in the city won't matter no more/ When the network is down and my flesh is all torn." While a portrait of a generation's concerns, however superficial, does emerge, the triteness of these concerns and the clichés Donohoe often uses to limn them fall short of endearing. "I had just woke up in someone else's bed/ She was overweight/ Who did I do last night?" he charmingly wonders on "The Guilt".(...)

Full Review

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review by: MusicOHM
reviewer: Jeremy Lloyd
Album Value: (-/-)

In the last 12 months, we've been literally swamped by rock 'n' roll bands from London trying to fill that post Libertines void. Barely a week has gone by without a new group emerging from the capital making some catchy, lo-fi sounds that demand our attention. Some have been great - Razorlight and Bloc Party to name a couple, and some have been horribly mediocre - take The Others or Dogs, for example.

The next band awaiting judgement are The Rakes, who have been building up a steady and devoted fan base in the aforementioned period with some impressive singles and a riotous live show. And on the evidence of this fine debut, Capture/Release, it's unequivocally clear that they fall firmly into the former category.

What they have presented us with is 11 songs in 34 minutes - all the tracks are quick and to the point, which tends to be an electrifying guitar riff or a great, unforgettable chorus. Not since The Strokes exploded into our consciousness in 2001 with Is This It has a band delivered such a sharp and concise debut.

The latent energy from their live show has been captured, but the whole thing sounds remarkably slick and polished at the same time - for this they can thank producer Paul Epworth, who has been partly responsible for a handful of fantastic records of late - debuts by The Futureheads, Maximo Park and Bloc Party, to name but a few.

But more importantly the material here makes you want to jump up and down, forget your troubles and just have a good time - as you listen to Alan Donohue's urgent, frenzied vocals and Matthew Swinnerton's intricate guitar notes on the likes of Strasbourg, 22 Grand Job or the finger clicking, verse-chorus glory of Open Book, you're often transported to that dingy, sweat ridden venue, full of warm beer and over enthusiastic fans. Or you're just in your bedroom secretly dancing away to yet another one of their mighty hooks. It may not be re-inventing any wheels, but as far as the previous criteria goes, it's certainly up there with the best records of 2005..(...)

Full Review

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review by: The Guardian
reviewer: Caroline Sullivan, August 12, 2005
Album Value: (3/5)

The Rakes have the sort of rumpled angularity that has been making French fashion designers gurgle about le rock anglais recently. But what distinguishes them from fellow fashion-punks the Others, Hard-Fi, etc is singer Alan Donohoe, who is a "vivacious [sic] reader": anyone who has been mourning the demise of the meaningful lyric will be delighted by his storytelling.

Donohoe's narratives are bundled up into punchy, punky three-minute bursts that win points for verve, if not originality. But you've got to like a tune that starts with the earnest introduction, "This is a true story!" (It concerns the awful consequences of a night at a club.) Don't look for the next big thing in this debut album, but it is diverting enough to earn the Rakes a bit of success.

Original Link

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review by: Conctact Music
reviewer: Joanne Nugent
Album Value: (-/-)

Hoorah, at last The Strokes have competition. And what a competition this could turn out to be, with blood and tears galore. Hailing from London, the quartet known as The Rakes release their debut album Capture/Release, and what a debut album. With the sound of a modern sex pistols the rakes inject their punk/indie sound into the music scene. From the opening of Strasbourg to the new single Work, Work, Work, there is not one bad tune on this album. The best song on the album is for me definitely 22 Grand Job, closely followed by Animals which has a distinctive 80s riff, the intro reminds me of Footloose and everything by Hall and Oates. However The Guilt is a great song as well and the reggae feel to Violent makes for yet another great tune. Hang on, wait a minute,

I can’t actually narrow down my favourite song on the album I’ve realised because there are just too many to chose from. There is a definite 80s vibe to this album and this in apparent in the latter part of the album, but it is carried off to a high standard. For a debut album this can not be faulted. I would say its perhaps competition also for the debut album of Hard-Fi – Stars of CCTV, released earlier this year. These London lads can only get better and as far as I am concerned the only way the rakes can go is up. A must for fans of the strokes, the sex pistols and anything with a punk flavour. A necessity for every music collection in the land, well worth the tenner it will cost to buy it and if anyone disagrees then they just do not have a great taste in music

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