433. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver"

 


Wow!  First "Crooked Rain," now this!  It's a 1-2 punch of Dad Rock for the ages.


Can't say they don't have a sense of humor about themselves, though, huh?  Above photo taken by the author at the Bill Graham Civic, November 2017.  Now that was a fun show - except for the Millennials who insisted on yelling at each other through literally every song - but nothing really compares to their set at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago in 2010, a show I was lucky enough to be at, where my eyes were first opened to this truly great band.  Here's a video of "All My Friends," a song from the album we're discussing today, and yet another Gen X anthem.  


Remember when we were talking about "Gold Soundz" in the last installment and how it's maybe about growing up?  Same thing here, except it's about being on the wrong side of 40 instead of 30.  It's the sequel to GS, I guess.  And, apparently, the second best song of the 2000s!  (Outkast's "B.O.B." was first.)  In an amazing coincidence, the other headliner at that Pitchfork festival was Pavement.

What genre even is this album?  Electronic dance pop, I guess.  As Wiki notes, "Sound of Silver has been described as dance-punk, dance-rock, electronica, electronic rock, and indie rock."  That about covers it!  To me, it sounds like Kraftwerk if they grew up in New York and were sad.  The first thing you hear on this record is just a drum loop that goes on slightly too long and then gives way to a melange of a song ("Get Innocuous!").  James Murphy started as a DJ and he's showing it off here; this is a straight club dance track.  Things get more interesting (from my point of view) after that; "Time to Get Away" and "North American Scum" are both jittery electro pop blasts.  We'd call them "angular" if that hadn't been banned for overuse.  

The album closes with "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down," which is about the gentrification and blandification of NYC in the early aughts but would be familiar to anyone who lived through the will-we-let-American-Apparel -open-a-store-in-the-Mission wars in San Francisco around the same time:

But they shuttered your stores
When you opened the doors
To the cops who were bored
Once they'd run out of crime
New York, you're perfect
Don't please don't change a thing
Your mild billionaire mayor's
Now convinced he's a king
So the boring collect
I mean all disrespect
In the neighborhood bars
I'd once dreamt I would drink
New York, I love you
But you're freaking me out

It's a really great song.  This is a really great album.  How's that for some insightful music writing.

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