Rumours that James Murphy would be retiring LCD Soundsystem for good have been rife for a good four years now, but we’ve never been given a date before.
It’s official now, though – April 2nd 2011 will mark their final show, a three-hour blowout at Madison Square Garden.
If that show doesn’t encore with ‘New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down’ then Murphy is dumber than I am.
And that’s perty dum. Derp.
LCD Soundsystem first emerged in 2002 with ‘Losing My Edge,’ and they followed this up with a string of standalone singles up to 2005’s self-titled debut album.
Aside from being a brilliant revitalisation of dance music, LCD Soundsystem was also a great value for money package.
The first disc was the album, and it remains to date one of the few albums of dance music that I not only like, but listen to all the way through. Proving that it needn’t be entirely electronic, Murphy trademarked his combined drum-machine and live percussion assault with the album.
The album’s lead single ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ was award-winning, popular and my least favourite of their songs by far – I much preferred ‘Tribulations,’ which despite having a derivative keyboard riff had the ambience of an air raid and a huge amount of energy.
The second disc was even better – a compilation of the standalone singles from the artist letting you get up-to-date on the backstory before you plunged into his new material.
Next up was 2007’s Sound Of Silver, which continued the trend of my hating the first single of every LCD Soundsystem album with ‘North American Scum.’
Where LCD Soundsystem was a brilliant collection of songs, Sound Of Silver was a proper album and explored their sound a whole lot more.
It also boasts my favourite LCD Soundsystem song, ‘Get Innocuous!’. Aside from its brilliant title, It truly sums up how brilliant LCD Soundsystem were at building up tension layer by layer, then releasing it as the song climaxed.
Next and unfortunately last was last year’s This Is Happening… a title that in hindsight could refer to the retirement of the name.
Despite including yet another lead single that I loathed in ‘Drunk Girls,’ it was on a lot of album of the year lists, and although it wasn’t as good as Sound Of Silver it created a perfect ending to the band’s trilogy.
Here are the best songs from one of our time’s best finest outfits.
1. Losing My Edge (LCD Soundsystem, 2005) – The first single from the band finds Murphy leafing through his record collection to tell you how cool he is. It’s better than that description sounds, though.
2. Tribulations (LCD Soundsystem, 2005) – Aside from boasting a superior video, the sheer velocity of this track appeals to me. It’s what first got me into them.
3. Movement (LCD Soundsystem, 2005) – A tribute to Murphy’s love of hardcore punk, this song takes forever to truly kick off and it’s that tension and release that became his band’s trademark.
4. Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up (LCD Soundsystem, 2005) – A total Beatles rip-off but a hugely entertaining one nonetheless.
5. Yeah (Pretentious Version) (LCD Soundsystem, 2005) – I have a soft spot for this song partly because it sounds like an awesome version of the music from Theme Hospital. But it also shows what LCD Soundsystem have up on 99% of dance music – the song is constantly shapeshifting, always changing, different instruments fading in and out across all eleven minutes.
6. Get Innocuous! (Sound Of Silver, 2007) – My favourite of their songs, this one ebbs, flows and evolves with a brilliant vocal layering technique I can’t get enough of. This is the way you make dance music.
7. Time To Get Away (Sound Of Silver, 2007) – Falsetto vocals and the drumbeat from ‘Train In Vain’ – what more could you ask for?
8. New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down (Sound Of Silver, 2007) – Unlike anything else in the band’s catalogue, a wonderful love song to a city – you could make a playlist of wonderful songs about New York.
9. Dance Yrself Clean (This Is Happening…, 2010) – Where ‘Get Innocuous!’ ebbs and flows, this stutters and jumps, before emerging triumphant a few minutes in amidst a cloud of keyboards. What an opening to their last record.
10. Home (This Is Happening…, 2010) – What better way to end their playlist than with the last song from their last album?
Do they have to use drums? 