LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem Review

While America wailed against a terrifying start to the 21st century, few captured the spirit. Those cultural pangs of hope and loss are compounded by few artists and even fewer have lasted on as cultural cornerstones. Art we can point to and use as examples of a period. Yet LCD Soundsystem and their self-titled debut inhibit those uncertain years with a cynical attitude and a punchy optimism which delivers sharp smacks when you least expect it. Such is the joy of James Murphy as a songwriter who finds himself with a hit on his and the band’s hands despite, as Losing My Edge would detail, feeling out of place. Start with the screams of a new generation and a cultural shift is ripe for the taking. Along with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire and The Strokes came a new boom of dance-punk and harsh indie rock with innovative flickers of downtrodden realism. LCD Soundsystem did it best and the makings of their sound were founded tremendously on this debut. 

These clangs and whirrs of spirited electronic funk would be the making of the band. LCD Soundsystem remains reliant on the machinery and tools found on their first album. Why change what works? Daft Punk Is Playing at My House remains a booming cluster of house party memories and the knack we have as drunken hosts. Only the best can do it, spinning records and influencing their guests’ musical tastes. Those bullets ripple through the night and those early portions of LCD Soundsystem remain sharp. Throat-clearing introductions to the crashes of Too Much Love relay the anxiety-laden missteps in those moments of hosting what you believe is a brilliant night. It turns sour, the overload of those emotions leaves no room for new memories because the hope of being loved overwhelms the chance for new fears and experiences.  

What are we if not the memories which shock us awake? Too Much Love considers the tranquil nature of living in optimism and the lack of life experience it would offer. This debut is the most lyrically dense the band would get before Murphy unleashed those flirtations with abstract images taking hold. Still, the instrumental tones, the whirring electronics and the percussion-heavy joys which create this heavy blanket of sound are a comfort even at their sinister best. Tribulations remain their best early work. Constant jitters and a vocal performance where Murphy uses his range as an additional instrument, a layer of impenetrable anxieties which dominate in the very clubs LCD Soundsystem finds their music playing in. Where Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up may burst through with raw guitar work it is in the lyrical expectations set by Murphy that the song shines. Those moments of truth and beauty collide and the likes of On Repeat are lucid experiences.  

Dig deeper. Beat Connection remains a consistent classic and the repetitive tones of Yeah provide quality in simplicity. Relegated to the second disk and those extra bits of loose vinyl but still worth a listen, LCD Soundsystem find themselves with a surplus of quality. Thrilling spills of electronic fuzz and blur, the tannoy-like grind of Thrills is implemented as all these effective clangs and brash noises are, with a precise read on how they can be turned from noise into notable moments of musical clarity. This is the key to LCD Soundsystem and remains their greatest strength. How can the flowing sci-fi pangs and whirrs make for an emotional boom? An anxiety-laden thrill ride in its lyrical outbursts and an overhaul of sharp sounds which are as strong and innovative as the mixing, sampling and conductivity of Daft Punk at their best. LCD Soundsystem has remained consistently emotive and throws metallic clangs at the heart, hoping to hit a nerve. They do it plenty of times on their debut.  

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