LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver

We sometimes wish James Murphy was our uncle. He’d do really amazing things like let us visit him on tour, send us cool records through the post, let us have a go ‘on the decks’ and he might even let us touch his beard once in a while. We’d also be able to boast that we were related to someone who made easily THE BEST ALBUM OF 2007 (so far).

From the man who made guitar-fused dance music cool again in the 2000s and ensured every city on earth had a club that now plays genres like ‘mutant disco’ comes a record that not only builds on 2005’s superb debut but blows it out of the water. Where its predecessor fuzzed and spewed its filthy beat-punk through booming club speakers across the globe, ‘Sound Of Silver’ distills the melody, energy and excitement of the debut into smooth electro-disco - a little more grown up but no less danceable. To die-hard hipsters it sounds like it’d be fucking rubbish, but it’s the most thrilling step forward any artist’s managed to make in the past year.

Last year’s ‘45:33’ track, recorded for Nike, hinted at what was to come on this record - it lacked the lo-fi urgency of Murphy’s previous work, instead replaced by a twisting, morphing, lose-yourself whirl, inspired by late 70s disco and the more bizarre side of pop. Which is where ‘Sound Of Silver’ picks up from - ‘Get Innocuous’ builds and replicates until it’s a throbbing, hypnotic monster, like Paul McKenna let loose on Giorgio Moroder in a Williamsburg bar. ‘Time To Get Away’ and ‘Watch The Tapes’ hark back to Murphy’s sparse punk roots (with added cowbell, of course), while ‘North American Scum’ is ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’s suave older brother, all Casio blips and horrifically funky basslines.

Aside from the all-out ‘party jams’, there’s also real moments of introspection and tenderness - ‘Someone Great’ and ‘All My Friends’ both tread the line between joy and melancholy, their buzzy soft pop veering between TV On The Radio’s warm, enveloping noise and Kraftwerk’s clinical synths. The epic funk of ‘Us V Them’ manages to bleed through to nearly 10 minutes, alongside title track ‘Sound Of Silver’, whose Bowie-meets-Talking Heads polyrhythmic weirdo-disco piano house is as breathtakingly ambitious as it is catchy.

Capping off with ‘New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’, a stripped-down ode to NYC’s beautiful pitfalls, it’s in stark contrast to anything from 2005’s debut album and shows just how much Murphy’s grown into his potentially tricky ‘middle aged’ phase. It’s also proof at how much of a rare talent he is - managing to balance experimental pop and accessibility without ever getting indulgent.

‘Sound Of Silver’ is easily one of the most impressive, cohesive albums DIY’s heard in a long time, and cements James Murphy’s place as a Nile Rogers for the 2000s - one of the greatest producer/songwriters of our generation. A shining Silver triumph.