Awakening

For the last couple of months, I’ve been in a musical sleepwalk of sorts. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been listening to good music, but, after telling myself at New Year’s that I’d make more of an effort to listen to music that's actually contemporary, I found myself listening to the same old classic soul tunes I’ve been listening to for years now. (Please don’t mistake this for any sort of criticism of Sam, Otis, Smokey, Stevie, Aretha, etc. They totally remain my faves.)

But the other night, I decided that, what the heck, I’d check out the new LCD Soundsystem album. While I can’t claim to be any sort of true LCD fan, I do count “All My Friends” (so typical, I know) among my favorites. But I can’t say that I’m familiar with the rest of James Murphy’s oeuvre.

Anyways, so I obtained a copy of This is Happening, and hit play. The first track, “Dance Yrself Clean,” grabbed me immediately with its contrast of naturally resonant percussion and obviously synthetic bass notes. I began to get lulled by the chill groove and vocal harmonies. One minute goes by, and then two… “Where is this going?” I wondered.

Then the track hits three minutes, and all of a sudden, four snares herald the arrival of a heavy-hitting synth pattern that immediately obliterates the spaciousness of the intro. I literally was caused to sit up straight in my seat, suddenly awake and in tune with the album. I proceeded to listen through the whole thing, even though it was past my bedtime. It was one of the most memorable music listening moments I've enjoyed in quite awhile.

Since then, I’ve read up on LCD—the recent New Yorker profile is pretty interesting if you can get your hands on it—and came across Pitchfork’s review of Sounds of Silver. I found one paragraph in particular quite on-point, as the writer really captures my sentiments about where we stand today in the music world and what Murphy’s place is in it:

We're besieged and stupefied enough by downloads and mixes and remixes and mashups and collections of songs masquerading as albums that an album that feels like an album strikes me as positively ideal right now. Thankfully, Murphy—a self-confessed 1970s rock nerd who grew up in the heyday of art-rock and albums as Statements—unapologetically sets out to make dance records that breathe like proper albums.

While the above was written more than three years ago about a different album, it certainly feels relevant today. And so I advise you to go out and buy This is Happening and give it a full, uninterrupted listen. Frankly, I feel dirty posting the below mp3, as the power of a single track in this case is so much less than that of the full album. But how else would I get you lovely readers here? Anyways, I’m finding the album quite enjoyable, and imagine you will too. Go check it out.

LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean (YSI) (dropbox)