Reject Reviews

(Context: I originally wrote a variety of record reviews for the local paper because one of their staff wanted 'hipper' music picks, but they didn't have the budget to bring in another freelancer. On Tuesday, they reviewed the new Belinda Carlisle and Jann Arden albums, and a wire piece on Fall Out Boy. In any case, I didn't figure I should let this LCD Soundsystem review go to waste, but remember the audience I was pitching it for.)

As one-half of the production duo DFA, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is one of the most influential producers of the past five years, firmly entrenched in the NYC-hip and popularizing dance music for all those blazer boys with tongues-in-cheek. Murphy’s output under both DFA and LCD is fashionably cold without being overly bloodless, and has done more to usher in the current New Wave nostalgia than any other, misguided or not.

With that said, “it” trends are necessarily short-lived, particularly when they lack any evolution. It’s surprising, then, that Sound of Silver is so firmly entrenched in a sound so, ugh, 2004, when any indie-hipster worth his salt would have moved onto something newer and shinier. While, in recent months, LCD Soundsystem’s Nike-commissioned piece 45:33 piqued interest in terms of its audacious duration (the piece is named after its length, forty-five minutes and thirty-three seconds, and patterned against one’s heartbeat during a workout of same length), Sound of Silver backs away completely from anything quite so different. That’s not necessarily a problem – Murphy has cemented the sound with little in way of competition (the Rapture’s weak follow-up gives proof) – but for a man that trades so heavily in currency, it may prove to be disappointing.