LCD Soundsystem CD - Import

If a music-nerd version of Animal House set in 2005 is ever made, "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" -- the boisterous opener of LCD Soundsystem -- would make an ideal theme song for the fraternity on which it is based. The self-conscious, awkward music obsessives pledging into this fraternity would have to pass a complex trivia test, own a compulsory list of records, and, as a hazing ritual, ask to dance with someone in public. If LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy were the least bit open to the concept, he could be the fraternity's advisor. Judging from a handful of singles and this album, he'd be more than qualified. His first A-side, 2002's "Losing My Edge," laid all his cards on the table, name-checking nearly everything that has been branded indispensable by a record store clerk during the past 20 years. This is someone who clearly owns tons of records and cannot escape them when making his own music. Acid house, post-punk, garage rock, psychedelic pop, and at least a dozen other things factor into his songs, and he's not afraid to be obvious. On occasion, he doesn't even allow fellow nerds to play guessing games. This is the case with "Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up" -- drowsy/dazed John Lennon vibes through and through -- as well as the drifting/uplifting "The Great Release" -- an alternate closer to either of Brian Eno's first two solo records. Otherwise, Murphy's songs cough up references from his subconscious or are put together as if he's thinking more like a DJ, finding ways to combine elements from disparate sources. "Movement" careens into high-energy guitar squall after a pounding beat and cranky synths; "On Repeat" happily replicates the scratches and jabs of guitar heard from A Certain Ratio, PiL, and Gang of Four, but its mechanical pulse and curveball synth effects couldn't be any more distanced from those three groups. Nothing here exceeds the brilliance of "Beat Connection" or "Yeah." Like just about everybody else these days, Murphy's more skilled at creating isolated tracks than making full-lengths, even though this particular full-length has few weak spots and unfolds smoothly as you listen to it from beginning to end. The bonus disc, containing all the stray single tracks, adds a great deal of value. ~ Andy Kellman
As half of the NYC underground-legend production team DFA, James Murphy was responsible for countless crafty retoolings of late-1970s/early-'80s sounds of the electroclash/post-punk-revival variety. Wearing his "artist" hat under the LCD Soundsystem moniker, Murphy concocted his own minimal-synth club hits, full of both hipster irony ("Losing My Edge") and catchy electro-hooks ("Yeah").
Finally unleashed for the length of a full album, Murphy's muse still offers up plenty of John-Foxx-will-rise-again retro synth sounds, but he expands his palette as well. The irresistibly catchy "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" is a funky, riff-driven party-starter that compares favorably to vintage Beck, and "On Repeat" indicates a fascination with the lyrical cadences of the Fall's Mark E. Smith. Moving further back in time to the art-rock era, "Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up" is a dreamy tune that could have slipped unnoticed off Pink Floyd's MEDDLE, and "Great Release" is an unabashed, slow-building Eno homage. To keep the club kids happy, a bonus disc featuring LCD's previous singles (including the aforementioned faves) is tacked on to an already-attractive package.

Japanese edition features one bonus track on the second disc, 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' (Soulwax Shibuya Mix). EMI. 2005.Rolling Stone (No. 968, pp.70-2) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[M]urphy has followed [the single 'Losing My Edge'] with an album that's just as good....[these tracks] either push the extremes of Murphy's dance-rock fusion...or fall unexpectedly far outside it..."
Spin (p.64) - Ranked #5 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005" - "[W]ith his trippy, studio-pop mimicry of Lennon and Eno, the man who taught the indie kids to dance now tricks techno tots into humming along."
Spin (pp.89-91) - "[A] set documenting, like the best, most heartfelt mix tapes, a sweet time that can't be fully recaptured." - Grade: B+
Entertainment Weekly (No. 808, p.100) - "[F]abulous dance music....unites the club and indie-rock crowds in ways few have attempted since the '80s..." - Grade: A-
Uncut (p.74) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[H]ere the will to change, improve, transcend and question positively thumps out in a liquid crystal display."
Alternative Press (p.128) - 5 out of 5 - "[A]n album that will survive the fleeting tastes of cosmopolitan hipsters..."
Magnet (p.115) - "This is a one-man walking jukebox with a lifetime's worth of records in his head..."
Magnet (p.104) - "You can dance to almost anything here, but between breaths, you'll marvel at his control and the way each sound pops like a primary color."
The Wire (p.44) - Included in The Wire's "2005 Rewind: 50 Records Of The Year."
The Wire (p.46) - "Self-reference, satire, retro, all of these are abundant on LCD SOUNDSYSTEM....For the anxious and disoriented who need to know where it's at, well, here's one place to start."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.62) - Ranked #1 in Mojo's "2005 Dance/Electronic Albums Of The Year"
Mojo (Publisher) (p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[C]louds of Beatle melody mushroom through 'Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up' while the euphoric chant of 'Great Release' is almost ecclesiastical. More proof that cool is what Murphy makes it."
Clash (magazine) (p.75) - "Murphy produced a glorious dance record that poked fun at the cliquey, self-conscious scene it moved on from while still being an homage to the New York movements -- punk, disco, new wave -- that actually meant something."