Released on 19/03/07
Label: V2

There's no escaping the fact that, as a follow-up to the hugely enjoyable "Capture/Release", "Ten New Messages" is a disappointment. The problem is not that The Rakes haven't sought to evolve; it's that they've done so too self-consciously and slipped out of their depth. A decision was clearly taken to attempt a warmer, less caustic record in a bid for crossover success, and toward this end, Alan Donohoe has strayed from his normal topics - boring jobs, drunken indiscretions, hangovers, despair - to write about relationships. Unfortunately, he doesn't find much of interest to say.

On "Little Superstitions", Donohoe delivers trite words of love in a grating, self-pitying croak, and everything you ever liked about The Rakes vanishes in a puff of smoke. The same thing happens during "We Danced Together", a song on which melody fails to mask the shallowness of Donohoe's lyric. Snooker players are reputed to lose their edge when they fall in love, and for much of "Ten New Messages", Donohoe seems similarly 'afflicted'. Fortunately, more interesting narratives arise from another of his new obsessions, namely that with terrorism and, specifically, the events of July 7, 2005.

Wisely, Donohoe steers clear of sloganeering and instead explores, across three songs, the fear, paranoia and strange sense of uncertainty that today touches the lives of every city dweller. The most light-hearted of the three, album opener "The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect", renders farcical the act of preparing for a hedonistic night out as war and chaos rage across the globe. Later, the album's best song, "When Tom Cruise Cries", provides a chilling recollection of Donohoe's 7/7 experiences which perfectly communicates the confusion and horror that reigned that day, juxtaposing it with bland celebrity tittle-tattle. Brilliantly, the track twice fades out and fades back in again, evoking an apt sense of creeping wrongness.

In between these two songs lies the album's centrepiece, "Suspicious Eyes", an account of a young Muslim tube traveller suffering the wary looks, not to mention racism, of his fellow passengers. Guest rappers (recruited on MySpace) voice the different characters effectively enough, but the whole thing's rather undermined by a chorus silly enough to evoke The Streets' third LP. As an experiment that doesn't quite come off, "Suspicious Eyes" is "Ten New Messages" in microcosm.

"Trouble", "On A Mission" and "Down With Moonlight" drift by in an aimless blur of vacant lyrics and indie-by-numbers drudgery, before a mercifully graceful finish is ensured by the wiry energy of "Time To Stop Talking" and witty vignettes of "Leave The City And Come Home". Ultimately, The Rakes succeed in topping up their live set and buying some time. But another record like this might break the myth.

    by Niall O'Keeffe