The Times once famously reviewed Queen’s ‘Tie your Mother down’ with the quote “sheer bloody poetry”. We were so taken with this idea we decided a more direct link between music and poetry was needed. Hence our returning feature, ‘Haiku Review’. 17 syllables of summary applied to some of the worlds best new music…
Love is a splendid thing indeed. When you are young you live for those intoxicating moments where you are buffeted helplessly, yet willingly, by the turbulent waters of pure emotion. As you get older you begin to understand that the most important thing isn’t necessarily how you found love but rather how it ends.
LCD Soundsystem certainly swept me off my feet all those years ago but it was the manner of our conscious uncoupling that left the sweetest taste. After a decade of obsession we parted as dear friends, a final rendezvous at Alexandra Palace with several thousand other lovers in this polyamourous affair. It was like Casablanca, Rick in his trench coat, top lip quivering, a plane to New York revving on the runway. Perfect really.
I struggled on with nothing more than vintage wine and memories until the heart stopping news came in that LCD were back, back, back! Older, wiser, and with a distinguished wisp of grey, their return triggered a wave of hot flushes that embarrassed as much as invigorated a fan of my age.
American Dream is a pitch-perfect flashback that hints at the future as much as it references the past. Bold and yet understated, it’s another charming New York conversation to rattle around your head. James Murphy is at his laconic best, speaking with gentle confidence throughout, repping middle age anxiety with the openness of a hormone-ravaged teenager.
The music is honed, post punk, post rave, post feeling like you have to fit into a genre at all. There is an undercurrent of Berlin-era Bowie, an influence best captured not by sounding similar but by remaining resolute in the ambition of sounding only like yourself. When the tropes of indie rock threaten to make American Dream a little too comfortable, rubbery analogue fingers jab at your ribs cajoling you onto the dancefloor where it’s impossible to look too self-assured (given your age).
OK, maybe it’s not quite perfect but what is? Especially the second time around. If you ever felt anything for LCD Soundsystem then this offering will not disappoint, James Murphy appears to have done everything but lose his edge. We are older and wiser, the times may have changed but the sex is still great and I think this time should be forever please. Lets swap vials of blood and get a tattoo together.
Gee, fancy meeting you here?
*Clings tightly to leg*
Eamon Murtagh
