LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver (Vinyl)

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Sound of Silver is the second studio album by American rock band LCD Soundsystem. The album was released jointly through DFA and Capitol Records in the United States and EMI elsewhere, first on March 12, 2007, in the United Kingdom. Sound of Silver was produced by the DFA and recorded during 2006 at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts and DFA Studios in New York, New York. Upon release, Sound of Silver received acclaim from music critics, and it was later nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. The group's later released EP, entitled A Bunch of Stuff, was composed entirely of songs from this album.

James Murphy recorded Sound of Silver at the Long View Farm in Massachusetts, where he had previously recorded LCD Soundsystem's eponymous debut album. Murphy was uncomfortable recording his own vocals, calling the experience "horrifying". Murphy covered the entire studio in silver fabric and tin foil. For the recording of LCD Soundsystem's following album This Is Happening, Murphy brought one of the original pieces of silver fabric to the album's recording studio in Los Angeles and hung it in Rick Rubin's recording den, the Mansion.

Musically, Sound of Silver has been described as dance-punk, dance-rock, electronica, electronic rock, and indie rock. The song "Someone Great" takes its instrumental from one part of the band's six-part, 46-minute long 2006 composition "45:33". The album was dedicated to "the memory of Dr. George Kamen (1942–2006), one of the great minds of his or any generation." The Bulgarian-born doctor was a pioneer of group therapy and had opened a practice in New York City.

 



LCD Soundsystem were a band fronted by singer/songwriter, producer and mastermind James Murphy and Sound Of Silver is by far their best album. It feels kind of weird describing them in the past tense, saying they were a band instead of are a band. It's also kind of a shame, since everything they did was pretty fantastic. But them putting out their absolute best and then breaking up is much preferable than them carrying on too long, releasing inconsistent albums and then creating uninspired drivel before finally fading into irrelevance and mediocrity. It's much better that they have such a fantastic discography. But to be honest, nothing can equal their 2007 magnum opus.

When it was first released, it was an instant classic. Critically acclaimed, loved and highly praised and you can definitely see why. The thing with Sound of Silver is that it manages to walk on familiar territory with such confidence. It's often reminiscent of artists that came before them - but they put a new, fresh, exciting slant on it and they manage to add their own personality and distinctive style to it. As you listen to it, you hear Bowie, you hear Eno, you hear Kraftwerk. You can hear a whole host of influences but unlike a lot of artists, LCD Soundsystem aren't simply plagiarising these artists and that's why it was such a critically acclaimed and widely respected album where its legacy will only grow with time. There's a fine line between regurgitating your influences to the point where it feels trite, derivative and dated and actually doing something interesting with those influences while putting a modern slant on it. LCD Soundsystem are always on the right side of that line. This is them at their best.

Everything about it is just so on the money. From the fantastic songwriting, to the immaculate instrumentation, to the fantastic production, even falsetto-heavy vocals are great which I think is an aspect of James Murphy's music he's had to work on. But I'm just guessing there. Except for the lyrics, the vocals are the weakest aspect of the album but they're still so strong. The lyrics aren't really the main focus of the album, they aren't why you listen to the album or the band. I read that earlier instrumental compositions of some bits that featured on the release 45:33 were re-worked and the lyrics were added to bits of it to create proper songs. Everything about it is just right. I was surprised just how many musical ideas came together and how varied the instrumentation was, you have vocals, synthesizers, percussion, drums, piano, bass, programming, guitar, drums, keyboards, bass, violin and they all come together so brilliantly.

I don't want to point out individual tracks because generally, it's not really my reviewing style. Though I occasionally decide to do track by track reviews, but it has to be said that 'All My Friends' is absolutely amazing. A truly incredibly and unforgettable song. One of the best ever written, but nothing else pales in comparison to it. This is where James Murphy's punk, pop and electronic sensibilities meet to create something wonderful. It has so many different styles on here which is pretty fantastic, ranging from alternative rock, to electronica, to post-punk, to dance punk, to disco, to krautrock. In LCD Soundystem's short career, this was their masterpiece. It felt like only yesterday that I first heard 'Daft Punk Is Playing at My House' playing a video game and now they're finished - but at least they gave us this. Sound Of Silver is most definitely one of the best albums of the decade, a true classic.

By: The Cunning Stunt


Get Innocuous 7:11
Time To Get Away 4:11
North American Scum 5:25
Someone Great 6:25
All My Friends 7:37
Us V Them 8:29
Watch The Tapes 3:55
Sound Of Silver 7:07
New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down



Housed in a gatefold sleeve with metallic silver text embossed on the front cover. Issued with a a 24-inch x 36-inch, full-colour, one-sided poster and full-colour inner-sleeves of lyrics and artwork.

[back cover]
P 2007 the copyright in this sound recording is owned by dfa llc under exclusive license to emi records ltd. C 2007 emi records ltd. all rights reserved
C 2007 emi records ltd. this label copy information is subject to copyright protection.

[inner-sleeve]
instrumental elements of “Someone Great” appear previously on 45:33: Nike+ Original Run by james murphy and lcd sound system, originally commissioned by nike.