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LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, "YR CITY'S A SUCKER"
The third platter of stinky, petroleum-derived vinyl recently releasedon the painfully hip DFA label is this one from LCD Soundsystem. JamesMurphy's pet project has elicited some amazing, epochal dance singlesin the past—I'm thinking here of "Losing My Edge," "Yeah" and "BeatConnection"—which is why his long-awaited LP released earlier this yearon EMI could not help but come as something of a disappointment.
DFA
Atfull album length, Murphy's Mark E. Smith vocal affectations andpredilection for obvious style parody, whether it's The Normal("Thrills") or Brian Eno ("Great Release"), became somewhat tiresome."Yr City's A Sucker" is a non-album track originally released as aB-side to "Movement," but here it is released in an extended mix withan instrumental mix on the reverse. At nine compelling minutes, theinclusion of a few more tracks like this one might have saved LCDSoundsystem's album. As it stands, this one track is superior toanything that made it to the album, a slowly percolating, loosey-gooseygroove with nonsense lyrics and loads of attitude. Murphy and crew seemto not even care if the various programmed rhythms, handclaps and syntharpeggiations ever gel and form a danceable song, which paradoxicallyis what makes the track succeed. "Your city's a sucker/Your city's acreep," Murphy dispiritedly intones repeatedly, as the various elementsof the track fall in and out of synch, providing many deliciously noisymoments of abstraction, even as the bassline and beat form a consistentbackbone that lends itself to dancing. The instrumental is exactly asadvertised—the same groovy shit with all of the vocals filtered out foryour mixing convenience. This track is destined to be the set openerfor weeks to come at all of those glamorous Williamsburg loft partiesthat you won't get invited to.
DFA
Atfull album length, Murphy's Mark E. Smith vocal affectations andpredilection for obvious style parody, whether it's The Normal("Thrills") or Brian Eno ("Great Release"), became somewhat tiresome."Yr City's A Sucker" is a non-album track originally released as aB-side to "Movement," but here it is released in an extended mix withan instrumental mix on the reverse. At nine compelling minutes, theinclusion of a few more tracks like this one might have saved LCDSoundsystem's album. As it stands, this one track is superior toanything that made it to the album, a slowly percolating, loosey-gooseygroove with nonsense lyrics and loads of attitude. Murphy and crew seemto not even care if the various programmed rhythms, handclaps and syntharpeggiations ever gel and form a danceable song, which paradoxicallyis what makes the track succeed. "Your city's a sucker/Your city's acreep," Murphy dispiritedly intones repeatedly, as the various elementsof the track fall in and out of synch, providing many deliciously noisymoments of abstraction, even as the bassline and beat form a consistentbackbone that lends itself to dancing. The instrumental is exactly asadvertised—the same groovy shit with all of the vocals filtered out foryour mixing convenience. This track is destined to be the set openerfor weeks to come at all of those glamorous Williamsburg loft partiesthat you won't get invited to.
