Zeroes' Heroes 11: LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem [2005]
Over the course of the last 6 months of this decade, i'll be putting together my favorite twelve albums of the years 2000 up to and 2009. Why twelve? It was too hard to actually cut it down to ten, and reviewing two albums a month seems like a good pace. Expect some safe choices, some incomprehensible ones, but most of all a record-collector having a go at recollecting an eclectic decade.
In 2002, the world looked up when LCD Soundsystem released their first single Losing My Edge - the story of a DJ who's afraid of losing touch with the times while bragging about his impeccable and infinite music collection. It reintroduced a sense of humor in music that somehow disappeared with the Talking Heads, and really was the starting point of the Zeroes' typical post-eclectic, cross-referencing popmusic that acts like Franz Ferdinand took to other levels.
LCD Soundsystem is James Murphy is DFA Records. Mr. Murphy started DJing in 1993 under the nickname Death From Above, and co-founded DFA Records six years later.
After Losing My Edge, LCD Soundsystem continued with a string of strong, heck even classic singles (like Yeah) before there were even the faintest hints of an actual album release. It finally happened though in January 2005, and it's because the physical album consists of two discs - one the official album, the second the first three singles and their b-sides - that i'm putting this record on number 11.
Because, to be honest, the actual album doesn't really have the weight to justify a spot on this list. Pieces Of The People We Love by The Rapture or Gotham by Radio 4 would have had just as much, if not far more, reason to be included here.
Tracks like Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, Tribulations and Great Release are the strong points of this record, but the overall feel of the album is that every trick and reference known in James Murphy's book is on display here. It tries a bit too hard to weld all their influences together, like AC/DC paying tribute to Daft Punk, The Beatles covering Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk reforming as The Fall. The follow-up to their debut, Sound Of Silver, was a much better paced and evocative record. Well, you might ask, why isn't that one in this list? Good question, simply because the raw energy from just a couple of tracks on the first album changed the landscape of dance music in this decade. But as you might have guessed, they're not on the first disc of the package.
No. Losing My Edge, it's original b-side Beat Connection and the two versions of Yeah on that bonus disc defined a new standard for dance music. Taking out the impeccable sequencing and sounds, and putting back blood, sweat and suburban tears, moved it all to another level. In that way, a cycle was finally completed, or at least my ultimate fantasy was indulged: the dance-rock hybrid, started by New Order (clumsy because they probably didn't know how to operate their gear), which got more and more hi-tech as years passed, returned to its roots because of James Murhpy. He approached it as music made by people, trying to be machines, creating a sloppy-neat/neat-sloppy sound.
So those first few singles emphasize LCD Soundsystem's strong points: the typical drum-machine-with-added-human-error, the dynamics which go off the charts at times - like in Yeah (Crass Version) - and all the cowbell you wished for in the nineties.
In fact, if i were to compile a Best Zeroes' Singles list next to this parade of albums, Losing My Edge/Beat Connection could very well be the number one. Losing My Edge comprises all that is LCD Soundsystem (and most of the bands who followed in their slipstream), and Beat Connection really is this decade's Blue Monday in my opinion. Since the single was sort of officially declared dead somewhere during these past ten years, it'd be foolish to do that.