LCD Soundsystem - American Dream - 9/1/17

So what's your take on Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR, then?

So what's your take on Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR, then?

Primal Scream were largely the product of great producers, not a great band

It's a different system that does the mashing.

james murphy is just a heavy-handed production outfit who happens to also be the artist

Aye.

this bored me

Thanks! Why?

this album is class

xposts:

You have a point with Screamadelica, not so much the othet two.

Screamadelica's approach is replicated in XTRMNTR by [the core of] Primal Scream specifically seeking out various producers for different sounds on specific songs. This is obviously a creative decision by the band - they knew that Paterson and Miller and Weatherall would provide disparate results, and sought them as collaborators, just as they sought Denise or George Clinton or Augustus Pablo or Mani as collaborators. That they were making their decisions wilfully, not being shaped helplessly at the whim of hired adults, is underscored by Vanishing Point sounding like Vanishing Point, not like Wild Wood and Stanley Road.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7957890/lcd-soundsystem-james-murphy-no-1-album-billboard-200-chart

No. 1 on US Album chart ... but it's bringing me down

85000 copies sold, that is impressive

81000 even...

Thanks! Why?

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, September 8, 2017 10:00 AM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess it's sort of on paper a lot of things that I "should" like a lot, wrt all the post punk references edging up against dance stuff but with a certain classic rock grandiose stadium quality

but overall, i don't know there's no weird mental frission that marks the best period post punk for me, a genuine weirdness and disorienting quality that comes from maybe not really knowing what the fuck you are doing in a way, or trying to accomplish things that are beyond your abilities

like whatever early PIL or Raincoats or Swell Maps or Joy Division/New Order or The Fall or Gang of Four have, this just doesn't have it to me, it feels like he is a canny guy with good taste and a good template for what makes LCD Soundsystem albums at this point but ultimately it's like, I dunno, All That You Can't Leave Behind era U2 or something, some real pros executing their style effectively

"some real pros executing their style effectively"

that sounds great!

it helps if it's in any way interesting, too

I mean, you could write some music that is completely uninteresting but checks all the stylistic and technical boxes, and perform it in a proficient way, and still be boring as hell

(that isn't about LCD, just that praising well-performed things isn't necessarily a complement)

get a sense that they are trying to accomplish Belew solos at points in this, but it is beyond their abilities

otm

I guess good for them for not just having Byrne/Belew/anyone else just play on their records, since surely they could at this point?

I'm not sure Byrne would be in, but Belew is cool doing session work and I'm fine with that!

Emotional Haircut reminded me more of Wire than anything else

― ufo, Friday, September 8, 2017 12:11 AM (three days ago)

As soon as I read that I could hear "I'm the Fly" in my head.

Album art looks like an ilxor quoteblock

Pre-s/t singles = metal gear solid
S/t = metal gear solid 2
Sound of silver = metal gear solid 3
45:33 = metal gear solid peace walker
This is happening = metal gear solid 4
American dream = metal gear solid 5
Introns, bunch of stuff, the one from the Kevin spacey movie, etc = ghost babel, portable ops, the tactical rpg one, etc

If you know what I am talking about and disagree, fucking fight me

I have no idea wtf you mean.

good for you, otherwise you'd have to fucking fight him!

American dream = metal gear solid 5

Also, lol.

i don't think that analogy works at all but lol

Also Murphy and Kojima might have similar tastes - Murphy clearly loves New Order and Kojima named one of his releases 'Substance' for the same reason - but as far as temperment is concerned, Kojima has none of that James Murphy self deprecation and referentiality; Kojima is 100% scatterbrain ego mania, moving effortlessly from David Bowie references to fuckin' holographic blue whales coming out of the fuckin' earth.

As I type this I realize Kojima would slay that wimpy Murphy.

love you nerds

Kojima is an old goth - he always post stuff abt New Order, Joy Division, the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen etc etc

Emotional Haircut reminded me more of Wire than anything else

― ufo, Friday, September 8, 2017 12:11 AM (three days ago)

I can't stop hearing Geddy Lee sing "Emo-tion-al haircut - on timeless wavelength/bearing a gift beyond price/almost free"

i will never fucking forgive this thread for forcing me to equate "zaireeka" to metal gear

This thread is more interesting than this drab of an album.

a lil drab'll do ya, in this case

will never fucking forgive this thread for forcing me to equate "zaireeka" to metal gear

You're welcome.

His records sound so great.

This one sounds way better than the last one to me, which was kinda thin-sounding? All the synths sound amazing.

Definitely a bass guitar album.

And looking at the credits it's mostly JM...he's a really good bass player, huh?

The album was mastered by Shellac bass player Bob Weston, if that could have something to do with it

Anyway I'm in love with this performance from Jools Holland last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORGpezG5-Jc

Bob Weston's is always a name I'm pleased to see on mastering credits.

I, surprisingly, did not have a problem with the album, but no joke, I literally forgot it existed.

Finally listened to this today; the CD's been sitting on top of a speaker for two weeks. There's been plenty of other new stuff to listen to, but I think I've also been avoiding it.

But it's ... actually really, really good! TBH I was more than happy for 'Home' to be their final statement, but I'm pleased to be so wrong. And whoever said upthread that this was a bass guitar album was totally OTM.

This is not a very enjoyable record.

I liked Wire's review;

".. the inexpressive lite-white stadium bluster of the tracks - frequently recalling U2 at their bloated worst.. This record is no cause for celebration. It's a slab of nothing, a media spectacle for the terminally impressed.. "

I saw that it's Album Of The Year in one of the big monthlies but I forget which.

It left no impression on me when it first came out, but I decided to give it a second shot tonight because I just caught up with Tom Scharpling's excellent interview with Murphy from the summer. This time around, I'm not only finding it boring, but actually unpleasant. "How Do You Sleep" is particularly dreary.

seems like there other records had some combination of hope/humor that seems in short supply here.

Wire quote is good. It feels like a record that's not behind the times, but rather completely besides it. Combined with an artist who painfully overrates the importance of his own second coming, this shit should've been butchered in 2017. It's completely risk-free, reliant on distant memories: the most boring music alive. Slab of nothing indeed.

it's not that bad, calm down

at the time i blamed it on the weed i had eaten along with arca's set rewiring my brain, but they sucked at pitchfork. that wire quote pretty much sums up how i felt about it, though i would add that murphy probably watched 'stop making sense' way too many times

mean thread

Album of the year for this record is... interesting

it's not surprising at all, it's a big comeback release from a critically acclaimed band with lots of cross over appeal, their first to reach the #1 spot on Billboard too

of course it's going to get a lot of votes in a Mojo eoy poll, and it wouldn't need #1 votes to top the poll