A voice calls out “Solo!” in the midst of a dance-y little number, the bass keeps throbbing for a few seconds and then, clear as day, the cowbell solo begins. The song is “Daft Punk is Playing at my House,” the first track on the self-titled debut album from LCD Soundsystem. The voice is that of James Murphy, and if you haven’t heard of him, or at least his label, DFA, chances are you haven’t been dancing nearly enough over the last five years.
It’s hard not to love a dance-punk album with so much cowbell. The smart lyrics and excellent production don’t hurt, but at its core it’s the pure, ass-shaking power of the grooves that drives the album. Still, it’s a stylistically unpredictable affair. “Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up” sounds like early Pink Floyd for the first five seconds, but after that it could be late-era Beatles, with guitar work reminiscent of George Harrison and a McCartney-esque yell at the end. The influence of the Fall’s Mark E. Smith is overwhelming; Murphy channels the post-punk god’s vocal style throughout much of the album.
The bonus second disc is a collection of the singles that Murphy has released over the past three years, including “Losing My Edge,” a name-dropping monologue of an aging hipster; “Beat Connection,” a percussion-heavy dancehall number; and two versions of “Yeah,” a “Crass Version” and a “Pretentious Version.” The “Crass Version” consists of Murphy actually submitting some lyrical content, whereas the “Pretentious Version” is so pretentious that he puts no vocals on the track, and the song is pushed to over 11 minutes. None of the material on the first disc can touch the dance magic of the singles here, and it’s good to finally have a collection of Murphy’s finest work.
While this may not be a cohesive album, it is filled with consistently solid tracks, and well worth the listen. But this is primarily a party album; to play this in a room with no one dancing would be a travesty.
