13. LCD SoundsystemLCD Soundsystem
I think Sound Of Silver is a great record and I guess you could even say that it’s a superior record, in respect to it being a lot more trim, there are no lulls on the album at all. You could say LCD Soundsystem from the debut really distilled everything about their music that was great and expanded on it a little bit, with a few ballads and low key tracks and crafted a very well running record. Whereas the debut is a bit more of a mess, a bit more winding and all over the place. There are different versions of tracks and you question, to appreciate the album do I really need to listen to the other versions and everything? But you have to appreciate that the scene that LCD Soundsystem came from is a dance music scene, where you’re talking about dance mixes, 12 inches, remixes and singles. So I think when you look at it through a lens of parties, DJs, that sort of thing, it makes a lot more sense. Which arguably to this day is still how DFA runs, they’re still dropping a lot of singles and 12 inches and remixes, because that’s the artistic scene and aesthetic that they’ve always represented.
I just love the dance grooves on this thing. I think the production is excellent, despite it being as rough around the edges as it is. A lot of great, classic, fantastic dance music is in fact a little rough around the edges, and a lot of the forgiveness for that comes by way of feeding it through very loud speakers into a room of people who are high or drunk off their asses and dancing for hours on end. So it doesn’t so much matter if it’s cleanly put together as much as it matters that it’s hitting hard. But as great as a series of dance songs as this album is, I think the lyrics are really great too. I mean obviously, James puts a lot of thought into the messaging of his songs and I think it’s thinking man’s dance music, and whether you’re talking about a track like ‘Losing My Edge’ or a song that’s almost satirical in a way like ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’, there’s a lot of funny commentary on the scene that they operate within, about the music industry and being a music fan at large. I just appreciate that element of LCD Soundsystem’s style, it’s just not a combination of ideas that you often hear, or did often hear in the 2000s. Obviously they pulled lots of influence from Talking Heads, Eno and clearly all of the artists they listed out in ‘Losing My Edge’, which is not just simply a commentary, it’s almost a music nerd’s fantasy. [Assumes Professor Frink voice} ‘Oh I’m going to listen to all the artists that they listed in this thing’. It’s so many different things all at once. The 100 minute album is the way to go.
