Sometimes, I guess, it's the thought that counts.

I mean, the very thought of The Rapture, a band of wild-haired New York punks zestily experimenting with pupil-expanding dance music under the tutelage of the day's most important producers…it's just too good not to believe in. It was such an exciting notion, it got a lot of us through the last year, while we waited, and waited, and waited for the album, stepping over each other to praise it before we'd even heard it.

And if the truth isn't so perfect, does that matter? So what if they're really Californians to a man? (San Diego, it has to be said, is about as un-rock 'n' roll as hometowns come.) So what if said experimentation might actually be a bit more reluctant than we'd like to imagine? (The DFA sound, in places, to be pulling disco teeth from rock gums.) So what if they haven't, like, got any songs? (The band's drone-clatter-'n'-wail was never going to take them far.) They gave us one great single (the evergreen "House of Jealous Lovers") and a year of frothy expectation, right? Isn't that close enough for rock?

In any case, the honeymoon is over, and the arrival of the much-delayed Echoes means it's time to figure out how wedded we are to this band. There are certainly reasons to be optimistic: Luke Jenner's high-pitched warble is a charismatic instrument, sounding like Robert Smith on poppy moments like "Love Is All" and like a deranged punk banshee on, well, everything else. And there are rich new wave grooves on "Killing" and "Sister Saviour" (great Anglophile spelling!). But check the liner notes and you'll find that these two tracks, as well as the proto-house fumblings of "I Need Your Love," feature co-writing credits for Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy as The DFA. "Killing," in fact, bears more than a passing resemblance to Murphy's "Losing My Edge," one of the definitive DFA singles and a fusion of punk attitude and electronic groove unmatched on this album.

The credits are relevant, because songwriting is in worryingly short supply here. Left to their own devices, The Rapture still sound unsure of themselves, and it's not hard to imagine Murphy and Goldsworthy wringing hands behind the scenes, wondering if they've backed the wrong horse. "Olio" and "Open Up Your Heart," want to sound crafted but come over limp and irritating, while "Heaven," "Echoes," and "Love is All" each throw one good hook into wind tunnel of messy noise. It's not enough.

The official line was that Echoes was delayed by a bidding war, as labels stepped over themselves to sign what looked to be a potential phenomenon. But it seems just as likely that the album was delayed by its own shortcomings. It wouldn't have been fair to expect this relatively green punk band to come up with 10 more songs as thrilling as "House of Jealous Lovers," but the producers, who have made some of the most exciting music of the last two years, must have found the lack of real kicks on this album to be cause for concern. If they held it up, they didn't hold it long enough. And if they decide to stick with this band for another record, they'd do well to take even greater control.

If you like The Rapture, check out:
Gang of Four Entertainment!
Happy Mondays Bummed
Various Artists DFA Compilation No. 1

-- Jesse Fahnestock