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Review by JONATHAN RINGEN(Rollingstone)
rate 4 out 5
For a future-disco hero, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is unusually self-conscious. Before you hear a single kick-drum sample on his excellent second album, Murphy seems to be intentionally setting the bar low, giving the massive, clattering dance-floor killer that opens the disc the awesomely pathetic title of "Get Innocuous." The first LCD track, 2002's "Losing My Edge," was an anthem for aging hipsters everywhere; Silver's first single, "North American Scum," is about the existential crisis of being American at this particular historical moment. Even though it's difficult to imagine Murphy ever exhorting, "Everybody dance now," musically he owes a huge debt to house-music masters like Clivilles and Cole. Putting aside the world-weary Bowie-meets-Byrne vocals, the bulk of the tracks -- "Innocuous," "Us v Them," "Sound of Silver" -- could be lost late-Eighties dance classics. But somehow it all holds together as an album (the New Wave-y tunes "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" help), and by the end, ex-indie-rocker Murphy comes full circle, returning to his roots with the Pavement-meets-Morrissey comic lament "New York I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down."
Amazon editorial review:
Two years after LCD Soundsystem's eponymous full-length debut sent indie scenesters rushing to the dancefloor, the outfit headed by dance-rock producer James Murphy serves up another stiff cocktail of punk, dance, and funk with Sound of Silver. Analog synths, chugging basslines, chunky guitars, and Murphy's wild falsetto excursions are once again the foundation to which is added the new and strange, such as the heavily chorused voices that suggest backward-masking in the opener "Get Innocuous" and the captivating harmonics keyboardist Nancy Whang bounces off of Murphy's vocals on "Someone Great." If this album has its own version of "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," it has to be "North American Scum," an infectious stormer that breezily dismisses Europe as a place where "the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes." Such lines are good evidence that LCD's music would rather ridicule itself than fall into the kind of pretense and nostalgia it constantly lampoons. The album's title track reflects that hankering after one's teenage years is often interrupted when "you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager--then you think again," while the power ballad "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" wearily serenades the Big Apple as "still the one pool where I'd happily drown." True, LCD's music is not for everyone, which may have something to do with why their fans love them as they do. If you fall into the latter category, however, Silver is gold. --Brent Kallmer
Track listing:
1. Get Innocuous
2. Time to Get Away
3. North American Scum
4. Someone Great
5. All My Friends
6. Us V. Them
7. Watch the Tapes
8. Sound of Silver
9. New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
Review by JONATHAN RINGEN(Rollingstone)
rate 4 out 5
For a future-disco hero, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is unusually self-conscious. Before you hear a single kick-drum sample on his excellent second album, Murphy seems to be intentionally setting the bar low, giving the massive, clattering dance-floor killer that opens the disc the awesomely pathetic title of "Get Innocuous." The first LCD track, 2002's "Losing My Edge," was an anthem for aging hipsters everywhere; Silver's first single, "North American Scum," is about the existential crisis of being American at this particular historical moment. Even though it's difficult to imagine Murphy ever exhorting, "Everybody dance now," musically he owes a huge debt to house-music masters like Clivilles and Cole. Putting aside the world-weary Bowie-meets-Byrne vocals, the bulk of the tracks -- "Innocuous," "Us v Them," "Sound of Silver" -- could be lost late-Eighties dance classics. But somehow it all holds together as an album (the New Wave-y tunes "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" help), and by the end, ex-indie-rocker Murphy comes full circle, returning to his roots with the Pavement-meets-Morrissey comic lament "New York I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down."
Amazon editorial review:
Two years after LCD Soundsystem's eponymous full-length debut sent indie scenesters rushing to the dancefloor, the outfit headed by dance-rock producer James Murphy serves up another stiff cocktail of punk, dance, and funk with Sound of Silver. Analog synths, chugging basslines, chunky guitars, and Murphy's wild falsetto excursions are once again the foundation to which is added the new and strange, such as the heavily chorused voices that suggest backward-masking in the opener "Get Innocuous" and the captivating harmonics keyboardist Nancy Whang bounces off of Murphy's vocals on "Someone Great." If this album has its own version of "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," it has to be "North American Scum," an infectious stormer that breezily dismisses Europe as a place where "the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes." Such lines are good evidence that LCD's music would rather ridicule itself than fall into the kind of pretense and nostalgia it constantly lampoons. The album's title track reflects that hankering after one's teenage years is often interrupted when "you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager--then you think again," while the power ballad "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" wearily serenades the Big Apple as "still the one pool where I'd happily drown." True, LCD's music is not for everyone, which may have something to do with why their fans love them as they do. If you fall into the latter category, however, Silver is gold. --Brent Kallmer
Track listing:
1. Get Innocuous
2. Time to Get Away
3. North American Scum
4. Someone Great
5. All My Friends
6. Us V. Them
7. Watch the Tapes
8. Sound of Silver
9. New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down