Three Imaginary Girls - LCD Soundsystem

Shortlist Nominees ... already?

Erik Gonzalez — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:53:26 +0000

Of course, this year's nominees were picked by a guy from Snow Patrol, a guy from the Killers, a guy from CMJ and a guy from KCRW ... and I suppose it reflects that diverse group (note the sarcasm).

The 2007 Idolator Critic's Poll is live!

ChrisB — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:38:06 +0000

I've been looking forward to this day since the beginning of the year. Finally the results of the 2007 Idolator Pop Critics Poll are in. I will be doing some serious geeking out over the results in the coming days (weeks? months), but for now here are the big winners, according to the 451 critics who submitted ballots:

#1 Album: LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

#1 Single: Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, "Umbrella"

#1 Artist: Radiohead

#1 Reissue: Young Marble Giants, Colossal Youth and Collected Works

And for fun, here's how some imaginaries voted (I didn't include some because I was either not sure if they would be comfortable linking to their ballots because they were entered under the staffer's real names or I just didn't see them). If I missed any please let me know or include a link in the comments. Mine is here. Other TIG staffers:

Imaginary Dana

Imaginary Liz

Erik Gonzalez

Best of 2007: Tim Hanken's picks

Tim Hanken — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:16:59 +0000

After much deliberation, here’s my top ten for 2007.

Best of 2007: imaginary embracey's ten favorite albums

imaginary embracey — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:55:47 +0000

On the off chances that 1) anyone cares what their friendly neighborhood imaginary film and theater critic thinks about the year's music releases, and 2) anyone is doing anything at all during the dead 'tween-holidays week, much less reading top-ten lists, here are my favorite albums of the year, alpha by artist:

The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder
The Eames Era – Heroes + Sheroes
Imperial Teen – The Hair The TV The Baby & The Band
Just Jack – Overtones
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala
Menomena – Friend and Foe
The New Pornographers – Challengers
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Tracey Thorn – Out of the Woods

My films-of-the-year feature (coming early '08) will be far more compelling. Promise.

Best of 2007: Joseph Riippi's minima-lists

Joseph Riippi — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:00:14 +0000

Anyone who knows me outside of the HTML world knows two things:

I am a big guy.
I don't know my way around HTML very well.

In order to thwart my big-guy status, I've done many things over time. First, I enjoy minimalist art a lot more than big, bombastic art. This carries to music as well: I think the Arcade Fire are gloriously over-rated (too big) and prefer the more subtle stylings from big bands like that of Broken Social Scene. Arena rock was great. But it's over. Let's move on.

In any case, given that I like minimalism and I don't know my way around HTML very well, I've opted to display my lists for 2007 WITHOUT the bombast of YouTube videos and such. You want to hear a sample of something? Ask Google. They're small guys and they know their way around HTML. I'm sure they can find you a YouTube video or free MP3.

That said, here are my lists for the TOP SEVEN best albums of Oh SEVEN (in general) and the TOP SEVEN best albums out of the Northwest:

Best of 2007

Radiohead—In Rainbows
Amon Tobin—Foley Room
Elliott Smith—New Moon
LCD Soundsystem—Sound of Silver
Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen—Book of Longing
The Blakes—The Blakes
Slow Six—Nor’Easter

Best Northwest of 2007

Best of 2007: Erik G's favorite albums

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:12:43 +0000

Sometimes I think it takes me waaay too long to come up with my Top 20 albums of a given year. There are a lot of internal debates and arguments that really have no right answer. Really, you reach a point where all the albums are good but how to rank them gets to be quite the challenge. This year was chock full of good music (not matter what the naysayers might groan). I counted something like 175+ albums worth mentioning in 2007, and that is only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything that was released in the year. However, I did whittle it down to 20... well, 22 if you count my 2 EP exception (EP's don't count as real albums).

If you're interested in some sub-lists, like my albums "with apologizes" (albums I didn't hear but should have) or "best imports" or "most disappointing" (hint, the band who made it rhymes with Milo Biley), check it out here.

So, here we go:

#21 The EP's - Two EP's made me happy this year, and really, they would be in the top 20, but it seems unfair to me to include EP's versus albums. They're both UK pop, and they're both brilliant in their own cute way.

Los Campesinos! Sticking Fingers Into Sockets (Thanks to igLiz for this band!)

Best of 2007: Erik G's favorite songs

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:28:01 +0000

OK, well, nobody likes to reflect and rank more than I do (I'm a scientist, I love to quantify), so here goes. I've got my favorite songs of 2007 - no, not best or most innovative, but rather the songs I liked ... lots and lots and lots. There is a little overlap from my forthcoming Best Albums, but also some curveballs. Enjoy!

Honorable Mention:

"Girls and Boys in Love" by the Rumble Strips
"Sons of Cain" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
"Jack the Ripper" by the Horrors (special note: If the Horrors had a brain and released the original fast demo version of this song on their debut Strange House, it would have been an easy top 10.)
"Ragoo" by Kings of Leon
"Heart It Races" by Architecture in Helsinki
"Geld Essen" by K.I.Z.

#10. "The Prayer" by Bloc Party from Weekend in the City - This song is one of the most interesting songs Bloc Party has recorded. Too bad the rest of the album (short of "Hunting for Witches") just wasn't as cool.

Best of 2007: imaginary stella's picks

imaginary stella — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:33:27 +0000

It’s always odd to revisit what you’ve reviewed over the course of a year. Sometimes, much can change – as after subsequent listenings, you realize that record you thought was pretty decent just blows (see The Killers’ Sam’s Town) or you come to love an album that you’d previously dismissed as mediocre (see “Into the Wild” soundtrack). The true test of a “best release of the year” is its stability, so I’ve tried to pick “long-haul” contenders—albums I’ll go to for months (or even years) to come, with no requirement for a set amount of finalists. Here’s what made the cut...

TOP ALBUMS:

LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver (this one sits significantly higher than the rest)
Interpol: Our Love to Admire
The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
Eddie Vedder: "Into the Wild" soundtrack
Minus the Bear: Planet of Ice
Aqueduct: Or Give Me Death

And, topping the list of what sadly wasn’t as good as I expected:
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I’ll leave it at that. I can hardly fathom how disappointed I was by that output (mixing the quirky fire of Modest Mouse with legendary jangler Johnny Marr? How did it fall so flat?).

TOP NORTHWEST ALBUMS:

Not that NW artists don't count in overall, national polls! I just felt like making a separate list. To wit:

Best of 2007: ChrisB's Top 10 list

ChrisB — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:30:39 +0000

Since I have the time and am not terribly anxious to go outside in the rain again but am looking to start an argument or two, here's my list of my top 10 albums of the year, with YouTube-age of my favorite song from each album (where available).

Let's add another list: Amazon's staff Top 30 for 2007

Erik Gonzalez — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:06:18 +0000

If we're looking for the mainstream USA "Best of 2007", here it is: the Amazon.com staff list!

Another Best of 2007 list to dissect

imaginary liz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:53:38 +0000

Today's Best of List to discuss comes courtesy of Uncut magazine.

More LCD Soundsystem for y'all

Erik Gonzalez — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:38:30 +0000

Judge for yourself - the video is cool, albeit a little creepy.

As Seen on TV: LCD Soundsystem, The Shins, etc.

imaginary liz — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:35:27 +0000

In case The Shins or LCD Soundsystem are make your heart skip a beat, here's some stuff worth setting the creaky VCRs for over the course of the next few days.

Sound of Silver

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:00:00 +0000

9.7

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000M3452Y/wwwthreeimagi-20

lcdsoundsystem07mar.jpg

I normally attempt not to be hyperbolic with my reviews, but if you buy one album in this, let's say, decade, LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver would be a profoundly wise choice.

James Murphy has constructed an album that not only embraces but transcends the genres it flits between, from trance to down-right balladry. LCD Soundsystem has refined their (his?) song-making technique, and also shown that Murphy can hold his own as a singer, something most post-electronic digit tweakers can't claim. Sound of Silver is evidence that rock music has a future, even if it doesn't know that this is its future.

An excellent departure for looking at Sound of Silver might be a quick look back at the first, self-titled LCD Soundsystem album. That album is worth its coin merely by collecting some of the early LCD Soundsystem singles such as “Losing My Edge” and “Yr City's a Sucker” on a bonus disc, but the true album itself is chock full o' musical gems like “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” and 'Tribulations," landing the debut at #3 on my best of 2005 list.

Sound of Silver expands LCD beyond the dance-oriented, DFA sound to become something more universal. Sure, the opening minute of “Get Innocuous!” is a very conscience shout-out to “Losing My Edge,” but instead of being purely dance music, it veers into a world of post-disco magic, evoking both New Order and “Fame”-era Bowie simultaneously. Although “Time to Get Away” might be the least interesting song on Sound of Silver, it shows the dynamic growth in Murphy's song-smithing (by the way, LCD trivia: Murphy passed up a chance to be a writer on Seinfeld. Go figure), taking a page out of the fellow DFA alumnus, the Rapture, showing that LCD Soundsystem can make pure dance-rock with the best of them. Now, if you're looking for Sound of Silver's “Daft Punk is Playing at My House," then look no further than “North American Scum” -- it's raucous and infectious. Whether it's an indictment or ode to North Americans is immaterial to the post-punk Le Tigre electroclash sound. If we ever needed another “Loser”-type song to take the nation by storm this summer, this could be it.

This first third of the album is the most dicey portion you'll hear, but only because what you're up against next is breathtaking. “Someone Great” is pure ecstasy – it's hard to describe all the bits and pieces spliced into this marvel. It's part Postal Service, part Orbital, part Depeche Mode, part undefinable. It has such a gentle tone without sounding too soft and fragile; it practically melts in your ears (OK, maybe tha'ts an odd description, but listen and you'll know what I mean). The song itself might be about a breakup, but does that matter? It's a bittersweet anthem that just re-inforces the refined nature of Sound of Silver and the idea that Murphy isn't just a studio genius but a helluva a songwriter.

“All My Friends” only suffers from being directly after a moment of bliss like “Someone Great," but the banging piano opens and morphs into a mid-80's alternative rock homage with bits of Echo & the Bunnymen, U2, and Joy Division all at once (Murphy even has an uncanny bit of Bono is his voice). “Us V. Them” is much more like what you might expect from LCD Soundsystem, building itself up into a frenzy like “Losing My Edge," while “Watch the Tapes” is downright punk set to a sequencer. The title track of Sound of Silver is an anthem for middle age as Murphy drones, "The sound of silver talk to me/makes you want to feel like a teenager/until you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager/then you think again." The song itself is the most ambient and, well, sweet, LCD has ever sounded, almost like the Fall meets the Orb, bubbling and gurgling in pop wonderment.

If you think you've heard everything Murphy has to offer at this point, oooh no, you are mistaken. It's dumbfounding to hear the album's closing number, “New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." Suddenly, Murphy has morphed into a hybrid of Tom Waits and Daniel Johnston, alternately between a piano troubadour and warbling singer-songwriter. The bitter love song to the city of New York is genius, right down criticisms like, "so the boring collect -- I mean all disrespect/In the neighborhood bars I'd once dreamt I would drink/New York I love you/but you're freaking me out." There is nothing in the LCD Soundsystem oeuvre that prepares you for this balladry that Murphy just waltzes into like he's been doing all his life, crooning, "Like a death of the heart/Jesus, where do I start?/but you're still the one pool where I'd happily drown." The song explodes into a pure show-stopper that would make Tom Jones proud, right down to the flagrant guitar solo crashes along until the tempo drops and the piano come back.

Maybe this album is just coming to me at the right time, but Sound of Silver doesn't really have a chink in its armor. Sure, it's only nine songs long, limiting the chances for deadweight, but the astronomical step-forward James Murphy has accomplished from the already excellent LCD Soundsystem is hard to fathom. If anyone will bring true respect to those studio nerds and turntable artists, Murphy could do it with Sound of Silver. It takes LCD Soundsystem from being merely a cute little act to a landmark in a time when music is grasping for its next big thing.

I normally attempt not to be hyperbolic with my reviews, but if you buy one album in this, let's say, decade, LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver would be a profoundly wise choice.