Filed under: Hasty Music Reviews | Tags: kermit the frog, lcd soundsystem, Music, sound of silver
Sorry dude. is (potentially) an occasional column where I apologize for publicly or privately criticizing art that turns out to be pretty good.
I guess I have Kermit the Frog to thank for making me finally appreciate Sound of Silver. Kermie’s video lip synching along to album closer “New York I Love You” (it’s not on YouTube anymore, presumably you can find it elsewhere) was pretty great, but had the consequence of making me appreciate that song a little more and finally giving Sound of Silver a front-to-back listen.
My embarrassing (and, it seems, legendary) reaction to the video, by the way: “…nothing makes me feel as warm inside as a wide-open muppet mouth.”
The consensus pick for the Best Album of 2007, Silver‘s first single, “North American Scum,” remains irksomely self-conscious; James Murphy’s lazy drawl is, one supposes, actually intended to sound like the ultimate example of the hipster cliche, but that doesn’t make the schtick funny. Or tolerable. The loud, vaguely unenthusiastic girl harmony backup sends me over the edge every time.
Elsewhere, things are pretty good, and surprisingly consistent and digestible for a longish album made up of nine longish songs. “Time to Get Away” has proven its utility on the dance floor, “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” are legitimately excellent and intelligent pop songs (the latter won me over late last year – not that I told anyone – after I heard this cover by the Main Drag). Ditto the title track and “Kermit I Love You.” “Us v Them” is still annoying though. Anyway, keeping this abbreviated, sorry dude.
p.s. Fingers still crossed that, in ten years, everyone will realize that this was actually the album of ’07.
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Have you seen LCD live? That’s often the clincher – dudes (and one gal, sometimes) really tear shit up. Plus, how can you beat “Someone Great”? Just a note: I love James Parker’s writing, but James Murphy is LCD. (Although reading that ‘graf in the context of a critique of a Parker article added an extra dimension!)
Comment by Matt S. December 10, 2008 @ 1:19 pmDang, I am the laziest Googler ever, I knew that last name wasn’t quite right. Fixing…
Though yeah perhaps an unconscious mistake, I get annoyed at Parker in a similar away with some frequency.
Comment by ofmaine December 10, 2008 @ 1:24 pmHey Chris!
Glad you enjoyed our cover of “All My Friends”. Do you have an email address we can hit you up at?
The Main Drag
Comment by TheMainDrag December 10, 2008 @ 5:43 pm