When you’re one half of a celebrated production duo who have been the defining force behind the swaggering funk rock sound currently jolting the streets of New York to life, the expectations for your own debut album are high. Not that the pressure appears to get to James Murphy, who with Andy Wallace forms DFA, the men at the mixing desk for The Rapture’s lauded debut album, as well as the awesome remix of Le Tigre’s ‘Deceptacon’.

If you’re expecting an ego trip from one of music’s most sought after producers, think again. Murphy is no Pharrell Williams and LCD Soundsystem are miles better than the underwhelming N*E*R*D. The superb opening track ‘Daft Punk is Playing at my House’ sets the tone, with Murphy displaying a humility and enthusiasm for music, summed up in the boyish excitement of the song’s title.

LCD Soundsystem first came to prominence with ‘Losing my Edge’, an amusing look at the effort and elitism involved in being at the cutting edge of music. That song doesn’t feature on this album (though does appear on a bonus disc of previous singles) and nor do the obscure pretensions of that song’s narrator. Instead Murphy explores the differing stages of pop music’s past but always within the template of his own sound. The squalid rock of ‘Movement’, with its squealing feedback and jerking rhythms, is what would have happened had The Velvet Underground discovered electro funk. The sparse melodies of ‘Too Much Love’ reference Kraftwerk, ‘Never As Tired as When I’m Waiting Up’ is The Beatles circa the White Album, while ‘Tribulations’ has echoes of Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’.

There’s a wealth of styles on the album and Murphy handles them all with ease. But there’s real substance too and he really knows how to write a song. The brilliant ‘On Repeat’ builds from a lumbering disco track to a menacing techno punk classic and features the great line “I wish I could complain more about the rich but then their children will line the streets and come to every show”. The unashamedly epic closing track ‘Great Release’ is more like a Hidden Cameras song (though without the smut) with its grandiose piano chord and angelic vocal.

While it seems easy to write off the electro funk scene as the pretentious cravings of a bunch of wannabe trendsetters, music as quality as this is a stumbling block. LCD Soundsystem don’t go in for snobbish exhibitionism or camp irony, there’s just Murphy’s infectious passion and an album of great songs.

words: Colm Larkin

Have your say here