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But we should be thankful that they are bowing out at the top of their game. They released three albums, LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver, and This Is Happening, all of which reached a huge audience. When This is Happening was Pitchfork’s 2nd best album of 2010 and also was top 10 on the US Billboard, you know a band is popular. Rather sweep into the night with everyone still raving about the latest album rather than linger on with half-hashed albums and tours that are pale imitations of what came before (viz. Oasis, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers).
What distinguished LCD Soundsystem from the rest of the pack was their innovation, unpredictability and sheer joie de vivre. ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, the opening track off their third album is the perfect example. The opening is measured thoughtful. The lyrics, if fitted to a particularly brash guitar riff could come from a My Chemical Romance song (‘Talking Like A Jerk/ Except you are an actual jerk/ And living proof that friends are mean’). Then suddenly the huge rhythmic beat is dropped and you have a dance track that eventually falls back to the introspection heard at the start.
The other songs are typically varied; ‘Drunk Girls’ is a bracing rush of cascading lyrics (‘Just cause I’m shallow doesn’t mean that I’m heartless’) with a climactic sing-along chorus that has featured on pretty much on the soundtrack of every TV programme in the last six months. ‘I Can Change’ feels like a souped up Velvet Underground track, kind of if Lou Reed had had access to the internet and a synth when making White Light/White Heat. ‘You Wanted A Hit’ is an excorciating hit on the music industry. ‘You wanted a hit,’ snarls Murphy after a few minutes of electronic build up, ‘but maybe we don’t do hits.’ It’s as catchy as the rest of them.
LCD Soundsystem will leave a hole that few bands at the moment can fill. Only Hot Chip come anywhere close to balancing mainstream acceptance and indie street-cred in the same way, and they are still very much a British, rather than international, band. However, their impact has breathed new life into an increasingly stale and jaded music scene and for that at least they will not be forgotten.
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