LCD Soundsystem - American Dream - 9/1/17

"Change Yr Mind" sounds like if you slammed the spirit of 'Scary Monsters' and 'Remain in Light' together. Awesome track.

This is most obviously post punk record they've done. I've seen a few reviews that call this a traditional LCD Soundsystem album and I don't get that sentiment at all? The dance punk stuff is pretty much totally missing. "Tonite" is about the only thing that sounds obvious self-referrential.

I think this might be my favorite album with them? But I've never considered them an album band before. There's nothing as good as Yeah or All My Friends on here, but the whole thing really coheres.

You don't think the first half is way better than the second (which is like half Black Screen)?

i love Black Screen. It dips towards the end, sure. But they've never had an opener as good as Oh Baby, and never a closer as good as Black Screen. I think. And it helps that the long tracks are the weirder atmospheric ones, instead of the dance-punk epics.

I'm really into this album. I was so much more excited for This Is Happening coming out (I'm guessing most people were) but my early feelings are this is the better record. The whole album sounds so natural and is a very cohesive listen.

I agree, but the last album is still better.

But they've never had an opener as good as Oh Baby,

better than 'Dance Yrself Clean'???

happy to see the turnaround in tenor itt. i'll listen to this at midnight, sounds good. never was super into LCD but i dig several songs here and there.

have loved all of the singles and cannot wait for this

'I used to' is really great

Yes, I prefer Oh Baby to Dance Yrself Clean. Kitchen Person is right that it sounds very natural. DYC is very much an 'opener' and it feels a tiny bit forced. I still like it, but Oh Baby works better for me.

wow someone loves Remain in Light

Not as much as I love Oh Baby. Had it on repeat the last half hour. God, it's great.

lol the cover art was for real

oh baby great opener (but dance yrself clean was genius)

I was thinking that this was pretty good, prefer it to the last album, at least they didn't fuck it up, put it away and never listen again etc etc and then I got to Call The Police and realised it's actually fucking great.

The cover makes sense in light of the lyrics as well. Strange lack of Trump hot takes so far.

I've never really enjoyed their albums completely but this one is definitely the first one that feels like a complete effort.

"How Do You Sleep?" is my favorite so far.The descriptions I read of it before hearing it made it sounds like a long slough but instead every moment of it is engaging.The beginning of it almost sounds like if LCD started by trying to rip off "In a Lonely Place" by New Order and went somewhere else with the idea.

"Other Voices" really is a watered-down rewrite of "Born Under Punches," down to the Belew-like guitar squonk. But without the big, hooky chorus.

This is boring me so far.

Not as much as I love Oh Baby. Had it on repeat the last half hour. God, it's great.

I was talking about the album lol. there are 2 songs that straight rip Born Under Punches & The Great Curve

It's funny that there's a Cure ripoff on this album and it's not the song literally called "other voices"

I Used To is the obvious Cure one but the vocals in Tonite from 3:50 really remind me of Disintegration

I think this is a much better final album than the last one. They should break up again.

I think this is a much better final album than the last one. They should break up again.

― Josh in Chicago,

Nah. This album at worst does nothing to advance the plot, but it does nothing to weaken the band's otherwise pretty solid catalog.

I'd be cool with them breaking up again, though.

How Do You Sleep = Someone Not Great

This album and pretty much everything by LCD = something.

dull and bad as usual. maybe the second half will pick up?

we should have precovered this too

'i used to' slightly less dull and bad than most of their songs tbf

these posts still allow for them not usually being very dull and bad

he is almost the perfect hipster milquetoast. he's pathologically incapable of having an interesting idea. sometimes he executes an uninteresting idea well

idk, LCD definitely has tracks. Debuting your band with "Losing My Edge" was brilliant. "Someone Great" is a beautiful song. "Dance Yrself Clean" is great but overplayed for me.

all of those, especially someone great, are boring ideas executed well

what ideas are you talking about? the melodies, the arrangement, the voices used in the composition?

or whatever the song is an homage/pastiche of? bc that's one that I don't hear anything obvious in - feels very original

melody, arrangement, structure etc

someone great is especially well-done, is what I meant. and its bendy synth line is a really good boring idea

Why is a bendy synth a boring idea? Please explain objectively.

if a "boring idea" turns out to be a good song you might have to concede it was not in fact a bad idea

xxp we are too frequently satisfied having our pre-chorus before our chorus and it is booooooring

you know it's kind of strange that SoS's two best songs are nakedly earnest and autobiographical while the rest of the album is "It's TIME to get away-uhh"

if a "boring idea" turns out to be a good song you might have to concede it was not in fact a bad idea

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, September 1, 2017 8:17 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it wasn't a BAD idea! sometimes boring ideas are good ideas idk. it's a song i'm happy that exists, and i'm also happy to never hear ever

the bendy synth line in it is probably his best idea ever, but you'll have to convince me it's in any way interesting

i'm being harsh of course but every time i hear this band i just hear someone playing it almost aggressively safe, every time

I dunno, I think they play it safely LCD Soundsystem, but I can think of ways they could be "safer." Shorter songs, attempts to be funky rather than hypnotic ...

Personally, I would love to see/hear/read a piece where huge LCD fans hear the Talking Heads, Eno, Berlin Bowie or Joy Division for the first time.

vintage throwback lj here

He's never ever seemed interested in creating new sounds or genres, but in creating a world out of his favorite records/reference/vintage gear etc.

that seems fair

this record would be better if it wasn't an lcd soundsystem record

not because it matters what the band is called but because i think they would have made more interesting decisions about how to present these ideas if they were facing down the prospect of having to tour it without being able to lean on the old songs to make the shows good

the engine driving the old records was a dude who on paper was not supposed to be perceived as relevant daring to make relevant music

this is the inverse, it's someone who on paper is relevant by default daring to make a record that just absolutely isn't relevant

i'm sure there are good ideas here because he has had a lot of them and i doubt he stopped having them suddenly

i just don't enjoy listening to this enough to ever find them

I think that's very fair and gets into what makes this "safe." You can see the wires attached in case something goes wrong and they fall.

JM is the voltron of the killer record store nearby where he grew up

http://www.prex.com/

other voices, as an evolution of pow pow with crosseyed and painless chorus grafted on, seems most guilty, but i still have time for it. so safe is a fair criticism of some tracks in so far as it's relative to their previous work. the album still feels like it has some new territory for them somehow. the increment is maybe smaller this time. breaking up and reuniting probably doesn't help my perception of that increment. i'm still enjoying this v much.

call me stephensufjan stills