bitterisataste . . . words and ramblings . . . v.6.0

Review of LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

Friday, March 14, 2008

this entry brought to you by lcd soundsystem, "time to get away"

I should say up front that I've never been much of a dance fan. Sure, the odd Chemical Brothers song got my head bobbing, and I went through a drum n' bass phase when that was getting attention, but I've never been much into the various forms of electronica. In general my problem with dance music is that it's shallow and repetitive; techno and house, don't even get me started-- who can listen to a whole genre dedicated to one song? These genres of music have always felt staid-- the exact same blips and lasers and thumps seem to inhabit every song.

Then there's this new breed of dance music, which has computers and synth lines like all electronica, but is based around sampling of real instruments, and sometimes actual live playing over synths - an electronica band playing in a studio. LCD Soundsystem inhabit this persona-- DJ/Producer/Mastermind James Murphy bases his music around loops and samples he made from his own guitars and drum sets, and when he tours he plays with a full band, and frankly, it's awesome. There's something very liberating about dance music now that I understand it more, there's something about putting on an album and grinning along, bouncing your head-- it feels good. And while I still have aversion to most dance music, this dance punk aesthetic works well for me. In Murphy's case, he also mixes his nasal voice with deceptively deep lyrics along with everything, much more enforcing the idea of LCD Soundsystem being a live band than the "push play" aesthetic of live shows by groups like Daft Punk. Murphy's lyrics are generally smarmy, tongue-in-cheek affairs, such as with one of the singles off his first album, "I'm Losing My Edge", which is about an aging hipster realizing he's quickly losing his relevance, and is so filled with outdated cool-guy references you can't help but grin.

Still, compared to LCD's second album Sound of Silver, his first, self-titled album sounds like merely fun beats and head-nodding synths meant to get rock kids dancing at a rave; here, Murphy's sound has developed more depth, creating songs that lean much more toward traditional song structures. There are still fun, tongue-in-cheek songs, which are even more bombastic than before, such as the giddy "North American Scum" and "Us V Them", both with sunny guitar lines and sing-along choruses, the former would do well as a backdrop to a car commercial with its delirious shouts of "C'mon North Americans!", nevertheless celebrates our, well, scumminess. There's also the amusing yet-loving tribute to New York, "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down", where Murphy laments with tongue firmly placed in cheek that he preferred the city back when it was scummy, dangerous, and fun -- "New York, you're safer and you're wasting my time/ Our records all show You are filthy but fine." And there's of course the dance-for-the-sake-of-dance jam title track, which consists entirely of the line "Sound of silver talk to me/ makes you want to feel like a teenager/ until you remember the feelings of a real life emotional teenager/ then you think again" repeated throughout.

But where Sound of Silver takes a real departure from its predecessor is Murphy getting surprisingly deep on us, with unexpected personal songs, like "All My Friends", where Murphy tenderly laments growing old and losing important friendships, singing "You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan/ and the next five years trying to be with your friends again". But the most touching song is the genuinely moving "Someone Great", which is possibly about a child dying, but I never thought a song with such a sweeping synth and bouncing beat could be so moving.
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with love from CRS @ 6:30 AM

Friday, March 14, 2008

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