"Is it lyrical genius or crap-rock poetry?" wonders the singer of The Rapture. "I say the lineage runs Morrison, Patti Smith, then me." Give him credit for talking the talk, even if he is kidding.

Trouble is, on their second album, these New York dance-punks don't quite have the moves to back up their mouths. Pieces of the People We Love has all the funky bass grooves, icy synths, spiky guitars, yelpy Robert Smith vocals and twitchy vibes that are standard equipment these days, along with the mandatory pieces of everyone from PiL and Joy Division to Suicide and Television.

To be fair, these guys do this stuff way better than most of their well-dressed competitors, mixing their trendy trappings and audacious lyrics with an infectious, winking enthusiasm that keeps these 10 hooky groovefests lighthearted and listenable -- and makes this one of the more interesting discs of the year in this genre.

But good as this is, they're going have to put all those pieces together into something a little more innovative and weighty if they want to generate a truly rapturous response.

Track Listing:

1. Don Gon Do It
2. Pieces of the People We Love
3. Get Myself Into It
4. First Gear
5. The Devil
6. Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh Huh.
7. Calling Me
8. Down For So Long
9. The Sound
10. Live In Sunshine