The Rakes – Ten New Messages

Great pressing of this amazing album. Glad to have it in my collection.

Although Alan Donohue's sarcastic swipes often hinted at a mind intent on shaking things up, The Rakes' hedonistic 2005 debut 'Capture/Release arrived ill-timed on the back of a Maximo Park-aligned marketing strategy.

'Ten New Messages' opening track, 'The World Was a Mess But Hair Was Perfect', however, puts paid to any comparisons with the cod-literate comb-over brigade. It's essentially the story of a drunken scenester who professes to be concerned with politics but is in fact more interested in coming off cool. Brave move, considering at least one third of The Rakes' fanbase most likely consists of these exact same well-coiffed hipsters. What's especially joyous about its winking lyrical acidity is that the track is actually a nipped and tucked edit of a 20 minute song the band were commissioned to pen for a Dior fashion show. So, while chiselled models shimmied down the catwalk, a tune full of biting digs at the fashion set accompanied their every move. The irony.

Elsewhere, the wry observation that was afforded to cityboy slickers in '22 Grand Job' is eclipsed with philosophical treatises on the state of the wider world. From British Asian rapper Rax spouting the line "Got a beard and a bag, so they think I've got a bomb" on 'Suspicious Eyes' to the Police-like stomp of 'When Tom Cruise Cries', we're offered surprisingly well realised takes on post-7/7 fear and the blurred lines between Hollywood and real-life. Music wise, however, not much has changed. 'Time to Stop Talking' and 'Trouble' both rely on the head-nodding, rapid heartbeat of tinselly drums and a bouncy bassline, whereas 'Little Superstitions' with its multiple guitar lines and the heartrending croon of, "Yeah, I say forever / And you just say whatever" recalls 'Is This It' era Strokes.

And so, with 'Ten New Messages' The Rakes have pulled off the knack of being able to deliver a series of songs that are longer and deeper but equally as memorable as the spiky missives spat on their debut. Indeed, the brash post-punk edge has been smoothed away to a polished pop finish, but the arsenal of cutthroat chords are more immediate than ever.