"Like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion remixed by Underworld" was the lazy description I gave for LCD Soundsystem once. LCDSS's sound is of course a whole lot more than that. And now that I have listened to James Murphy's sophomore 'Sound of Silver' (released on March 19), the comment is almost redundant.
The album kicks off with the familiar low-fi DFA discopunk and moves into new ground as the album drives ever forward with echoes of New Order, Kraftwerk, Bowie and Talking Heads. Murphy flaunts his influences throughout the album (and if you're familiar with the lyrics of 'Losing My Edge', you'll know he has a few). On "All Of My Friends" James' vocals even venture into early Bono territory. I heard cries of woe as I just typed that, but fear not, it is excellent and his signature nasal and knowing delivery is still the main feature.
While the first album's mood was very much 'missives of an aging hipster', Sound of Silver is more 'on-the-road insights of a self-aware rock star'. James Murphy was never lacking in depth, yet he has ploughed it. His sound didn't need to mature, but it has. This man is a musical polymath with the soul of a hedonistic Buddha...and our ears are so much the better for it.
Buy it from Amazon
PS. My good man Barrington has secured me a ticket to see them live at the Melkweg here in Amsterdam on March 17. To say I'm excited would be a tragic understatement.
4 comments:
This is good stuff, yeah - but much like the 2nd Bloc Party ablum, I'm yet to be blown away by it.
Maybe that'll change on the 17th! Melkweg baby! We gonna rock it... ;)
PS All I can hear at the start of Get Innocuous is Losing My Edge...
Nowt wrong with that Barrington. It's like a warm and familiar embrace before being taken elsewhere (that sounds fittingly pervy actually). In fact we've had some interesting sophomore releases recently: Bloc Party, Arcade Fire and LCD Soundystem. All igniting debate among music fans as to whether or not they were good follow ups.
Can I suggest that the Bloc Party album was, for want of a better word and mindful of not polluting the interweb with my potty-speak, a load of goats' balls? Lyric-wise, it's likely someone's stumbled across the TV GoHome site, and mistook for a grand literary experiment, around which great songs might be written. It wasn't and they can't.
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