Opinion
Band transforms slow start to beautiful masterpiece
December 2, 2010
In a world full of dreadfully awful music, exceptions occasionally exist.
LCD Soundsystem meets this exception and may even set the industry standard.
The perfect brilliance of James Murphy, the lead singer, is in full view after just one listen to LCD Soundsystem’s “This Is Happening.”
Simply put, the new album is pure musical genius and dance floor dynamite.
If you have every listened to any song from LCD Soundsystem, you’ll know that each song has a tendency to build into purely epic jams that normally start off a bit slow, but eventually transform into something beautiful and, at times, remarkably moving.
This fact alone leaves me nearly always wanting more: I find myself feinding not for a cigarette or a beer, but just a good helping of some LCD Soundsystem.
You may laugh, but try them; LCD Soundsystem has a cruel tendency to entrance the listener and leave them hooked.
This new album is no different, as it starts off with a tune named none other than ‘‘Dance Yrself Clean.’’
Believe me, if you like music one bit, you will dance yourself clean.
Rather ironically, this track is followed up by the single ‘‘Drunk Girls’’ and is at the very least explicitly fun to listen to.
As the tracks progress, a story begins to unravel, starting off with the wild ‘‘Dance Yrself Clean,” and finishing with a rather mellow track in ‘‘Home.’’
One can’t help but wonder if this was a planned scheme or just a brilliant coincidence.
Recently, LCD Soundsystem had a tour to celebrate this new album and ended up hitting nearly all the big cities in the Midwest.
A musical entrepreneur on the recent LCD Soundsystem in Milwaukee says,
“I had only listened to them for about a couple weeks before the show, but the vibe was so captivating, it felt as if I had for years.
Usually I’m not a fan of longer songs, but their songs were so fantastically layered, I didn’t want them to end.”
In short, as good as the studio albums are, live shows hold nothing back at all.
LCD Soundsystem has conquered the task of mixing interesting, strong and provocative lyrics with outstanding acoustics.
This creates for one hell of a music experience.
‘‘One Touch,” ‘‘All I Want’’ and ‘‘Home’’ are all stand out tracks on this album and exemplify musical perfection seldom seen in today’s times.
This album is one for the charts and really ought to win some awards.
All in all, if you have the slightest interest in music at all, you really owe it to yourself to give this album a listen.
Chances are you won’t be disappointed; in fact, you may just acquire a new favorite band.
Ryen Kleiser is a laid back biology student at UW-River Falls. He is hoping to become a well-known marine biologist and teacher.