2002 was a weird time to be an American. While New York was still recovering from the attacks on September eleventh, many major companies saw huge scandals. In particular, however, the month of July was relatively uneventful. What the world did not know was that on July 8th, 2002, one of the greatest bands of the 21st century would be born.
The unknown band, LCD Soundsystem, released their debut single, “Losing My Edge,” on that fateful July day. What was a solo act featuring the great James Murphy as the vocalist, writer, and producer, the New York performer got off to a fantastic start. The song, while made by an unknown band, somehow reached the Billboard 200 in the UK.
What would quickly become the band’s go-to formula for making songs, “Losing My Edge” is a lengthy track with humorous lyrics and strong dance-punk elements. While seemingly insignificant at the time, this kickstarted one of the greatest runs of the century, with this song in particular being ranked as Pitchfork’s 13th greatest song of the 2000s.
Being a one-man band was actually pretty difficult for Murphy, as for the next two and a half years, he only released three more singles under the LCD Soundsystem alias. While “Give It Up,” the first single since “Losing My Edge” was underwhelming, their two follow-ups, “Yeah,” and “Movement” are fantastic, but specifically “Yeah” is their first truly amazing song in my opinion.
In 2005, LCD Soundsystem added a bunch of band members and released their debut album, titled LCD Soundsystem. This album is very long with some forgettable songs, but the highs on this album are phenomenal, and they lay the groundwork for the unforgettable LCD Soundsystem albums to come in the future. With songs like “Daft Punk is Playing at my House,” “Tribulations,” “Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up,” and the ones I mentioned before, the band’s debut album was filled to the brim with timeless tracks and bangers. That being said, with the runtime being over an hour and a half, it has its fair share of forgettable or unnecessary songs.
After a year-long break and the release of the controversial 45:33, a forty-five-minute electronic masterclass, the band started the rollout for the undeniably amazing Sound of Silver. While their debut album was fun and careless, Sound of Silver doubled the fun but had an emotional emphasis on the feeling of lost nostalgia, attachment to home, and the need to get out and do better things.
Sound of Silver is constructed by nine songs, all amazing, for a runtime of 56 minutes, highlighted by the all-time great song “All My Friends,” a ballad dedicated to the feeling of needing to experience life and get out while having to balance the fun of the past, coping with the loss of friends over the years. Also on the album are gorgeous electronic clinics such as “Someone Great” and “Us V Them,” as well as decade-defining bangers like “North American Scum” and “Time to Get Away.”
Sound of Silver, to me, is a perfect album. The band saved the best song for last, however, as “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down” is one of the greatest closers of all time. In it, Murphy pours his heart out to the city that raised him, claiming that despite all of its flaws, it is “The only pool where he’d happily drown.” This song in particular will be super important later, so keep this one in mind.
While Sound of Silver is an utterly tremendous album, it is not their masterpiece. In 2010, the band made what was supposed to be their final album, This is Happening. Yes, this was supposed to be their final album, and even though it was not, to appreciate it to its fullest, you must respect the context in which it was released.
Not only is This is Happening a perfect collection of dance-punk, it is one of the most nostalgic-sounding, longing, and yearning albums I have heard in my lifetime. The opener, “Dance Yrself Clean,” is quite literally maybe the greatest song of all time, a nine-minute progressive and sonically brilliant track that features the hardest drop of all time. While it is the best song on the album, it is also a brilliant tone setter for the rest.
This is Happening is the best work in LCD Soundsystem’s discography based on the consistency and memorability alone. “I Can Change,” “Home,” and other songs like “You Wanted a Hit” and “All I Want” make the album an all-time favorite of mine. With all that being said, however, I have yet to get to the pain point of this article.
Like I said earlier, This is Happening was supposed to be their final album ever. People did not know that until the band made an announcement in February of 2011 that they would be disbanding following one big concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, their hometown.
To say that the concert was hyped up would be an understatement, as all nineteen thousand and five hundred tickets were sold out in fifteen seconds. There is a recording of the concert up on YouTube now, and it is clear from that and the audio itself that the energy inside Madison Square Garden was electric.
The title of the concert, The Long Goodbye, would prove to be just that, very long. It is over three hours of hit after hit and great performances all throughout.
The show begins with a euphoric performance of their best song, “Dance Yrself Clean.” While it is not very different from the studio version, the progression and drop are just as good. It is clear during the recording that the crowd is going absolutely ballistic.
Following this, the band performed more songs off of This is Happening with “Drunk Girls” and “I Can Change,” the latter of which is one of my favorite performances on the tape. They follow up these two songs with two off of Sound of Silver: Excellent renditions of “Get Innocuous” and “Time to Get Away.”
Next, the band played their biggest hit ever. When “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” began playing, the crowd erupted. This crowd truly had one of the best live crowds that you could ever hear. About forty minutes into the show, the band performed my personal favorite of their songs, “All My Friends.” One notable part of this performance was in the climax of the song, Murphy states: “This could be the last time,” and once again, the crowd just gives me goosebumps. It is the culmination of years of hard work meeting passionate fans for one spectacle of a final show.
The band would continue their excellent show with “You Can’t Hide / Shame on You” and “Sound of Silver” before reaching another one of my favorites, “Us V Them. The audience is really into this one and the song that followed, “North American Scum.” This song has been used in a ton of commercials and movies, most notably “Step Brothers,” the Adam McKay movie. The fact that these songs came this late into the concert and the crowd is still just as alive as when the show started is a testament to how consistent and efficient LCD Soundsystem really is.
The final nine songs of the show are an awe-inspiring run of tracks that put an exclamation point on the band’s final performance. Starting with “You Wanted a Hit,” they would play more incredible songs off their first album, such as “Tribulations,” “Movement,” and a super fun recording of “Yeah.” I love this run of tracks because it shows the band wasn’t afraid to return to their roots.
The twenty-fourth track on The Long Goodbye is “Someone Great,” a heartfelt ode to Murphy’s late therapist, reminiscing about the talks they had that were important to Murphy’s development as a person and musician. What followed this was their first song ever, “Losing My Edge.” It is great to hear the crowd explode for a song that somewhat gets overshadowed by the other material off the band’s first album.
What followed these tracks was “Home.” As the outro to This is Happening, it is a tear-jerking and emotional sendoff to their studio careers, but as a live song, it is instead a technically brilliant performance of one of the band’s greatest songs. The overwhelming feeling of nostalgia oozing from this song is honestly indescribable, and it’s hard not to get emotional whenever I hear it.
“All I Want” is a song that’s overlooked because it is surrounded by other fantastic songs like the aforementioned “I Can Change” and “One Touch” on its studio release. Once again, though, the band elevates the song to a beautiful Bowie-inspired track that is very nostalgic to me.
Following another great performance of “Jump Into the Fire,” the final song of the show approached. In a stunning and absolutely gorgeous execution of “New York, I Love You, but You’re Bringing Me Down.”
I really don’t even know where to begin with this. It is the final song. Like I said earlier, Murphy pours his heart out expressing his love for the city that raised him, this time in front of an incredible crowd in that exact city. A poetic ending to potentially the best live show of all time.
The dramatic instrumental outro is phenomenal, and it closes the show on the highest of highs.
The Long Goodbye is a perfect example of quality and quantity combining to make a modern masterpiece. With each song being created with such care and talent, the crowd being fantastically joyous, and a collection of passionate band members, the recording remains the best live album to release since the nineties, and it continues to inspire to this day.
While of course it would not be the real conclusion to the band’s discography, LCD Soundsystem was never the same after this performance. While they would return to making quality music, a part of the band died on that night in 2011. They retired on the highest of highs, and even though they came back years later, it is not fair to put an asterisk on the project.
LCD Soundsystem is one of my favorite bands of all time, and with this live album being a culmination of everything amazing about the group, that makes The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden a perfect album.
My rating for LCD Soundsystem’s The Long Goodbye: 10/10
Best Tracks: “All My Friends,” “Losing My Edge,” “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down,” “Dance Yrself Clean”
