Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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99 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
LCD Sound System Is Playing at My House...MY HOUSE!, February 16, 2005
It's fascinating: I can't remember the last album to be released that was so inexorably tied to indie-hipsterism and its fickle, ever-changing sense of what's "in." LCD Sound System are so cool that there's a critical/hipster backlash against them before they even released this, their first album. That they include a bonus disk of the early singles that got them where they are today is impressive -- it says that they are willing to let the new material stand beside the more acclaimed older stuff.
Cries of "derivative" are already being levied at LCDSS, and it's true that their taut, rhythmic pop owes a lot to their record collection: Can, Fall, Faust, Eno, Wire, etc. But why not steal from the best? The beats here are minimal, but incredibly nuanced in a way that LCDSS's forefathers never were, and above everything else, this is FUN music. Franz Ferdinand and Interpol are fine at the gloomy herky-jerky thing, but I don't think I'd ever put them on to facilitate having a good time...this is another story!
Not since the first Strokes' record has there been an album so fun and memorable that's been embraced by the smug, self-satisfied Pitchforkmedia generation. And not since the second Strokes album are you likely to see an absolutely unwarrented backlash against them.
But put aside this petty anthropology. Throw on the first disk and rejoice in the spell-binding beats, the amusingly self-efacing vocals, and the starkly propulsive vibe that surges the whole thing forward.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of 2005, February 15, 2005
It's official. LCD Soundsystem is 2005's best album, as of February 16, and, although it won't be bought by most for its dance tracks, is possibly the best dance record to come out of the USA since 1979.
If you could pick out one track -- any track -- from this eponymous album, as separate from the record as a whole, you might be able to define the genre, detemine influences, and draw comparisons to a reasonably similar band. But to do so would be entirely unfair to a record which, by its nature is entirely unique, disperse yet unified in vision, and destined to become a classic.
The overall feel of this eclectic album is of indie vocals over very well sequenced rhythms that alternate between vintage 80's, and the best of indie 2004 (the best single year for indie music ever, in my humble opinion). Some tracks are layered with rich experimental guitars, while others let the clever, often spoken but never boring lyrics take the lead. But just when you've got LCD Soundsystem (aka New York producer James Murphy, now co-head of red-hot label/production duo DFA) figured out as Talking Heads meets Cabaret Voltaire meets late model Bowie, as might have been produced and recorded by Factory Records circa 1980, you get thrown for a loop by a track like the perfect "Movement", an almost too-short track which stands out as the best of the record, and whose screeching guitars over industrial bass line and cymbal heavy drums are the rock high point of the record. This energetic plateau leads perfectly into the brilliant, mellow "Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up", a track that could easily have been taken directly from Elbow's Cast of Thousands, but which seems to work so much better here as part of what turns out to be an incredible compilation of style. The record's closer, "Great Release" is quite comparable to the best you might hear from Moby.
Then you get to disc 2.
That's right. This record, which as a single disc was already brilliant, is a two disc set, for a single album price. That is: it's a two disc set unless you buy on iTunes (don't do this -- do yourself a favor and get the entire two disc record and the six additional tracks).
Disc 2 is even more danceable than disc 1 (which is no small feat). Concentrating more on rhythm, lyrics and soundscape than on hook and radio sellability, the second half of LCD Soundsystem takes off with the classic club anthem "Losing My Edge", which cleverly sounds off many of Murphy's most important influences, and announces, quite accurately, "We all know what you really want". This is followed by the standard club fare "Beat Connection" and then the groovy "Give it Up", which sees the Cramps meeting the Pixies. "Tired" is a thrash guitar celebration and the two versions of "Yeah" are pure modern disco bliss, 70's bassline and all. The second of these is an instrumental triumph of epic proportion.
If I sound excessively excited and annoyingly enthusiastic for this record, it's because I am. By the way, Daft Punk is always playing at my house.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, but sometimes they need to know when too quit, March 28, 2005
This CD really makes me move. I love most the songs here, but my only problem is that I find myself changing songs in the middle because eight nine and eleven minutes for a repetetive dance punk song is way too long. The second disc with the DFA singles suffers the most from repetitive progression, but there are still some choice tracks. I fill they should release more of these with a radio edit, Daft Punk Playing at My House Radio edit is perfect example.
Overall I really really like these guys. I love James Murphy and his brainchild DFA, and The Rapture. He knows how to make and produce music that is both fun, intense, and smart with a dance rock edge. At times this CD can rock your socks off with great dance riffs, but once again, i very rarely can listen to evey song all the way through before switching it.
Best tracks: daft punk is playing at my house , Too Much Love, Movement, Disco Infiltrator, Give It Up, Tired, Yeah (Crass Version). Beat connection would almost be a classic but it wears itelf thin by the 5 minute mark. But for those who like their dance music throbbing and long, this will not bother them. Overall a very good album.
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An Amazon.com Best of 2005 selection.
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by LCD Soundsystem 
