No 23: LCD Soundsystem Is Feeling A Little Oppositional

And in this corner, we have the scruffy disco pugilist behind the song at No. 23.

LCD released my favorite album of the year–yes, me and seemingly every third rock critic on the planet–so I’m certainly not immune to the pleasures of universal fave “All My Friends” (a song so calculated to appeal to aged emos that I was rethinking including it here up until the last minute) or even the bullheaded mordancy of “North American Scum.” But if it was James Murphy’s lyrical dip into touchy-feely humanism that gave Sound Of Silver the edge over the sarcastic pastiche of its predecessor, the slow burner “Us. V. Them” revealed itself over the last 10 months as the album’s greatest groove, which should still count for something when you’re using the word “disco” to describe a band, whatever you’re hyphenating it with. The guitars are at their most Afro-disco prickly, the Hi-NRG sequencers throb with Pat Mahoney’s thrilling timekeeping, and discounting Silver opener “Get Innocuous,” the well-documented Brian Eno vocal affectations are at their funniest.

LCD Soundsystem – “Us. V. Them” [YouTube] LCD Soundsystem [Official site]