LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (DFA / EMI)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
'Sound of Silver' is the second album by New York's multi-talented uber-cool dude James Murphy (but with that sturdy build, moody stare and uncultivated stubble, I've always thought he looked as though he would be at home being playing as an uncompromsing centre-half for some English lower division football side, kicking fancy Dan strikers up in the air.)
It has the essential framework of a very good album. However there's a problem, namely that many of its 9 tracks tend to linger a lot longer than is strictly necessary: this is the main impediment to fully enjoying 'SOS'. Opener 'Get Innocuous' drags itself over the 7 minute mark- surely not since the Stone Roses opened the curtain to their 'Second Coming LP' with the seemingly interminable 'Breaking Into Heaven' LP has a sophomore record taken so long just to really get going.
The album peaks during the next couple of (slightly more succinct ) tracks. 'Time To Get Away', evocative of the cow-bell saturated funk of the Rapture's 'House of Jealous Lovers', is a more compelling contribution. The first 15 seconds of album highlight 'North American Scum' resemble something off REM's ambient melancholia 'Up' album, before tearing into a merciless 'Team America' style-spoof of Yank insularity; the lyrics summarising the continent of Europe as a place 'Where the buildings are old/and you have lots of mimes.' But the squelchy, forgettable 'Someone Great' just...well, grates.
'All My Friends' is oddly reminiscent of the studied languor of fellow NYC'ers The Strokes - although it drags on for about four times the length of yer average Strokes track. Murphy opts to close with a slow-burning Ryan Adams style lament, 'New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down.' It's a nice conclusion to an album that hints as greatness as often as it feels like a bit of a chore.
Artists in this article: LCD Soundsystem
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