SOUND OF SILVER - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Sarcasm is the calling card of James Murphy’s music as LCD Soundsystem, even when his disco beats are speaking for themselves. The rhythms work on the level of pure dance music but also carry air quotes, looking backward to their first meetings with buzzing guitars and art-school attitude in the ’70s and ’80s. The lyrics brim with grouchy wit: “North American Scum” mocks both Europeans who believe the Ugly American stereotype and the ugly Americans themselves. The title track centers on a chant about wanting to feel like a teenager — until you remember what your emotions were really like then. The single nondance track, “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” wallows in self-conscious nostalgia for the “filthy but fine” city of decades ago. Nice to know the curmudgeon in the nightclub is alive and well.
