Classic album: Sound of Silver

Coinciding with the cinema release of Shut Up And Play The Hits documenting their final live show at Madison Square Garden in 2011, this week I have chosen the electronic-dance-punk outfit, LCD Soundsystem’s sophomore LP, Sound of Silver, originally released in 2007.

LCD Soundsystem was always a curious concoction; bursting out of the New York indie punk scene of the early 00’s, they were a band that weren’t really a band. Formed by producer and DJ James Murphy in his late thirties, who sang and played the majority of the instrumental parts on their albums himself, only stopping to rope in some of his session buddies for their live shows, until, ultimately, with little fanfare, the group was dissolved by Murphy after only three albums.

But LCD’s flash-in-the-pan existence belied their brilliant straddling of the old and the new at that moment in popular music – a symbiosis of a punk’s values and an embracing of the modern pop/dance revolution of the 00’s. These influences would strike a perfect hybrid in Sound of Silver, Murphy’s masterpiece and one of the most expertly crafted dance albums of all time. 

Opening track “Get Innocuous!”, full of squiggly synth loops lets Murphy set out his stall for his own slick production values across this album, still noticeable after multiple listens. Murphy’s love of analogue recording tapes here creates a throbbing, layered wall of sound on each track, miles away from will.i.am’s cheerless robopop.

Ready-made classic tracks follow one after the other. From the tongue-in-cheek wit and playfulness of “North American Scum” to the heart-on-the-sleeve emotional poignancy of “Someone Great”, there is hardly a weak track on here.

But it is in the standout tracks, “All My Friends” and “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” that one finds the beating heart of this record. On the latter, Murphy’s almost Chris Martin-esque falsetto delicately ambles along before transforming into a Wagnerian cacophony that leaves you stunned. The former, however, is perhaps THE song of the 00’s: a 7 minute extended piano riff that, while dealing with Murphy’s sense of encroaching age, is somehow both nostalgic and eternally optimistic for the future. It is a timeless song that seems to invoke a different emotion upon each new listen (usually, in this writer’s case, a flood of tears).

Sound of Silver is LCD Soundsystem’s career-defining record and put simply, a joy to listen to.  To borrow a line from Time Magazine’s review of that final Madison Square Garden concert, ‘we may never dance again’.

And now, for your pleasure:

Images: Clash Music and Mecho