Monday, January 31, 2011

LCD Soundsystem vs. Kings of Leon



This death match deserves to be brought from the shadows of the comments now that I am able to post (thanks for fishing that email out of my inbox, Andrew!). Consider this my new and improved review:

LCD Soundsystem "(S)ound of (S)ilver" vs. Kings of Leon "Only by the Night"

LCD Soundsystem has roots in New Jersey, but this misfortune is overcome by its label, DFA, which comes from "Death from Above." Kings of Leon come from Tennessee, which gave us Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander, and Shannon Doherty...but it also gave us Morgan Freeman and Justin Timberlake. Plus their album title is poor plagiarism of "By the things that light the night."

I suppose I should also discuss the music.

First up was LCD Soundsystem. The album started slowly (not necessarily a bad thing) as I wondered if it was solely instrumental. Track 2 was neither good nor bad, but it sent me to wikipedia to see if the band descended from Public Image Limited or White Stripes. Track 3...that was more like it...I could get into this...but I won't be singing along to "North American Scum."

LCD Soundsystem reminded me of several other bands--Human League, Cake, Joy Division. I liked it, but I couldn't help but think that it came from the 90s. Perhaps all new music should sound like the 90s.

There's not much I can say about Kings of Leon. They didn't make me think or feel anything, didn't remind me of anyone, and I had no urge to dance, sing along, or repeat any tracks. The music was earnest...but I don't think I'll keep it in my brand new Grooveshark playlist. The most damning thing about "Only by the things that buy the night" was its salesmanship for LCD Soundsystem. On the urging of everyone present, I skipped back to "Sounds of Silver" when it was done, and I immediately said, "Hey, I like this!" Brad and Vic can vouch for that (and Vic gets credit for the Joy Division comparison); they had stopped by in the middle of Kings of Leon, and I believe they now own a legit copy of LCD Soundsystem.

LCD Soundsystem moves on. If there were justice in this world, they would be joining the Weakerthans and Gorillaz. Alas, they did not swear enough.

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