LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

Released in 2005 at a time when the majority of music being produced was edgy electronic music, very little comes close to LCD Soundsystem’s eponymous debut album. The LP consists of two discs; the first, a full album of new, previously unreleased tracks and a second disc featuring their singles since 2002.



Anyone who listened to the band’s first produce, the double single Losing My Edge / Beat Connection will know that it promised much. Losing My Edge perfectly captures zeitgeist for independent music during the 00s, through the lyrics of the band’s leader, front man and main composer, James Murphy. Murphy describes how people change their musical tastes in order to be cool and subsequently his tastes which he lists extensively, including the likes of Can, Liquid Liquid and Daft Punk are well out of date and he is losing ground to the kids from Paris and London ‘coming up from behind’. However the fact that Murphy continues to make music purely for himself and not to be cool means he will always transcend these ‘kids’. Clearly then LCD Soundsystem are not your typical electro band and the rest of Disc 2 is made up of a combination of long, layered electro tracks such as Beat Connection and Yr City’s a Sucker full of wonderful synth melodies and shorter tracks like the funky garage rock influenced Give It Up.

The first track of the actual album, Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, gives Daft Punk their second reference from the band and tells the story of a party where Murphy played real music rather than the commercial spew they would hear if they ‘go down town’. Like Losing My Edge, this track is an example of where the band have shown that electronic music can be more than just a hook and a song built around it, it can have meaning and resonance. This is also shown on Too Much Love which talks about how you can love something one day and hate it the next, and On Repeat which suggests that music made now is just a copy or variation of what has gone before, which, as this album shows, is not necessarily a bad thing.

The album also contains some simply brilliant tracks. Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up is a perfect homage to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and the excellent Tribulations is one to satiate the danceheads, although they may struggle to find much else on this album. However I, as the band did, saved the best until last. Great Release, the final track on the album, blows the eight tracks gone before completely out of the water. After two minutes of a quiet drum beat and simple chord progression, the track evolves into a perfect ambient pop song with Murphy’s distant, echoey vocals gradually faded out.

Despite some weaker tracks such as Thrills and Disco Infiltrator the worst that can be said about the album is that not all of it lives up to the promise of the band’s earlier singles. The band combines an unusual array of musical styles and instruments ( a favourite being a cowbell which finds its way onto most tracks) to produce an electro album which future musicians, let alone electronic artists, should all gain inspiration from. It seems that LCD Soundsystem are the thinking music fan’s electro band, with the meaning behind some songs more prominent than the music itself, and in a time where the meaning behind a lot of music is money, this is something to be treasured.

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MY top 10 radiohead tracks

This was not an easy list to make and i based my choices on three factors:
1. Enjoyment
2. Power of Meaning
3. Composition

I don't care if you disagree...

10. Bodysnatchers

Controversial start? An obscure song off an average album? Wrong. A song that highlights Radiohead's ever changing styles from an album that does the same along with a catchy riff and some beautiful harmonies (see 2.12).



9. Bullet Proof...I Wish I was

Again another choice which some may find strange, but after listening to all of the Radiohead's back catalogue, this track sticks out, for this listener, as one of the most beautiful, mesmeric things the band has ever done.



8. Karma Police

Recognise this one? A classic from a classic album. The change of key on 'For a minute then' is truly astounding.



7. The Bends

Another more well known song about the band coming up for air after the never-ending touring and interviews after the success of Creep. Amazing guitar work from all three guitarists, Jonny in particular, something which this live performance really shows off, and also one of the most beautiful endings to any song i've ever heard (maybe better to check out the album version for that).



6. Fake Plastic Trees

Thom Yorke said he broke down in tears after recording this track, and after listening to this live version thats pretty much where I end up every time. Greenwood's guitar at 2.45 is breath-taking, 'it wears me out refrain' is haunting and the whole song is awe - inspiring.



5. Blow Out

A golden oldie. The mesh of noise at the end foreshadowed what an amazing band Radiohead would turn out to be and their experimental nature, and showed their willingness to try things that no-one else was doing. The dreamy pop at the beginning isn't bad either.



4. Planet Telex

From the first atmospheric seconds of the band's second album, you knew they had a made an amazing record and had done so in no way any other band could have done. Like Blow Out, a marker of what was to come.



3. Everything In Its Right Place

After producing two of the greatest guitar albums ever made, the next song they commit to CD is an electronic classic. They completely changed their style and still made something heaps better than anyone else.



2. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Simply the band's most powerful song. Haunting. Scary. Beautiful.



1. Paranoid Android

After sitting here for ten minutes this is all i can come up with to describe paranoid android: unique, unrelenting and one of the most musically complex songs ever written.




There you go, hope you enjoyed :)

As for albums, im not going to try and justify this choice:

1.The Bends 2. OK Computer



3. Kid A 4. In Rainbows
5. Amnesiac

6. Hail To The Thief








7. Pablo Honey

IN RAINBOWS - RADIOHEAD

In Rainbows, the seventh album by Radiohead, is remarkable for many reasons, not least its unique distribution. On the 10th of October 2007 the album was independently released by the band as a digital download, the first of its kind, whereby customers could purchase the album for whatever price they saw fit.

While the marketing of the album was a step in a new direction for the band, the music is less so, however this is by no means a bad thing. Once again the band’s music presents a wide variety of styles and instruments; ranging from electronic beats and string arrangements to celestes and Jonny Greenwood’s beloved ondes martenot, and the songs present to the listener almost an amalgamation of what makes the band so special.

15 Step, the album’s opener, starts with Kid A-esque drum beats and handclaps before a jazzy, fluid guitar melody floats on top of it. This combination of driving drums and complex acoustic guitar is something of a motif within the album, also present on the impressive, atmospheric Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, as well as Jigsaw Falling into Place which with its brisk guitar and rapid piano, combined with Thom Yorke’s soaring falsetto leaves the listener breathless at close.

As with most Radiohead albums there is again evidence of the bands rock roots and this comes with the second track on the album, Bodysnatchers, which starts with an unclear, sludgy guitar riff similar to OK Computer’s Electioneering, until the songs breaks into an acoustic number with twangs of guitar and electronic drum beats over it.

What follows Bodysnatchers is something that die-hard fans will have been waiting for since the time it was recorded in 1997 during OK Computer. Nude had been a favourite request at live shows and it is presented beautifully on In Rainbows. The song starts with atmospheric electro sounds before soft drums and a simple bass line rhythm begins. Enchanting guitar melody and strings follow leading the song to a truly beautiful climax.

String arrangements are another facet of the band’s music which have become more and more prominent and are combined with acoustic guitar on Faust Arp, and simple guitar chords on the slow ballad House of Cards. They are also present on possibly the standout track of the album, and one of the bands most hypnotic and beautiful tracks to date, Reckoner.

In Rainbows, while it may not seem like the best thing the band has done, really epitomizes what makes them special. After seven albums the band can still make beautiful, original music and after listening to In Rainbows a few times it is clear that there is something special about every track, something worthwhile to write about a record, so much so that two of the best tracks on the album All I Need and Videotape did not get mentioned in this review. There is no way to really sum up Radiohead or the music they make, all that is clear is that they are unique in what they do in this time and all music lovers should pray that they continue to make music because we need them now, more than ever.

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