Echoes Turns 20

Echoes came out too late. At this point, it’s a matter for the historical record, and there’s no point in even arguing. The Rapture had a moment, and then they missed that moment. The band recorded their totemic single “House Of Jealous Lovers,” the song that would become the big-bang catalyst for the whole hipster dance-rock movement of the early ’00s, sometime around 2000 or 2001. They sat on the song for a year, uncertain whether it made sense for a punk band to drop a track that veered so fully into the club-music lane. The single eventually came out, and it set the world on fire. People were ransacking stores to find that 12″, and nobody had it. “House Of Jealous Lovers” never even charted in the US, but it went platinum on Soulseek and Kazaa. The Rapture made a furious album that built on that momentum, and then they sat on that for another year. By the time they finally released Echoes, 20 years ago today, millions of other baby dance-punk bands had emerged. So it goes.