The Rakes

The Rakes are trying to get through. They’re rushing, bobbing, and weaving. They’re pushing ahead, avoiding the crowds. They’ve got a place to reach, a message to pass on. But there’s stuff in their way. Traffic. Strangers punting street hassle (Give us that pizza! What kind of mobile you got?). The network’s down. A disruption on the line (underground and telephone). The arteries at the heart of the city are clogged. But they’re up for it, no matter how much they’re ground down by the daily grind. They’ve got the drive. The Rakes will get through.
Ten New Messages is the brilliant second album from London’s most switched-..ed-up young band. It is, literally, ten new messages contained in ten new songs. Musically for The Rakes it was about broadening their palette – the short-sharp-shock of their first album, Capture/Release, has given way to more developed, melodically strong songs. ‘We’ve not gone avant-garde or experimental or anything,’ the band say. ‘We’ve just got better at our jobs.’
So it’s about communication and travel, about reaching out to people, leaping over barriers, dodging buses on your bike, getting home on the night bus, getting hold of your girlfriend when there’s no sodding signal on your phone or the battery’s done. About how we move through the modern world. It’s real life, as opposed to globalised existential angst and pretension.
Half of Ten New Messages was recorded in Lincolnshire with producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Kasabian), half in London with Brendan Lynch (Primal Scream, Paul Weller). It’s testament to the strength of the songwriting and the playing that it sounds like one scorching whole. This is a band who, in the same year, as well as collaborating with Statik, produced a cover of a Serge Gainsbourg standard, demonstrating a broad spectrum of influences that reaches further afield and into territory uncharted by your average trilby sporting/eyes-glazed-over indie band.
They’re a band who are economical with their writing: they work on the songs they need, that are good enough to pass muster. Focus on the job at hand. Be right. Be tight. Be concise. The Rakes will get through. Their songs – sharp, meaningful, glorious – will see to that.
Sign up to get news on The Rakes as it happens.