“Let’s just start this thing finally with some clarity,” said James Murphy in a statement last year. LCD Soundsystem’s Madison Square Garden show was supposed to be their final gig; a grand send off on what was a terrific ten years of music. However, this was not the case.

“Early in 2015, I realised I had more recordings than I’d ever had in my life. More of them than when I went in to make any LCD record, or when I recorded tapes upon tapes of terrible things in high school. Just loads of them, and I found myself a little perplexed. If I record them, what do I do with them? Maybe I shouldn’t record them at all? Should I make up a band name, or make a ‘James Murphy' record, or should it be LCD?”

Turns out he recorded those tapes and with it has come a spellbinding album that outshines the previous three. There aren’t many examples of bands breaking up and reuniting in a way that seems scheming, but Murphy has come out of it well and now everyone can enjoy it for what it’s worth.

Whereas This Is Happening felt like a production aimed at displaying his penchant for disco, American Dream is a mixture of LCD’s many varied styles, whilst still feeling absolutely seamless as a body of work. Murphy has a message about his country to convey and new sonic explorations to reconnoitre.

Fans of the band’s slow burning, motorik anthems such as ‘Get Innocuous’, ‘One Touch’ and ‘You Wanted A Hit’ will be happy, with a large majority of the ten tracks following a progressive simple framework. Opener ‘Oh Baby’ being a perfect example of this. It's a six-minute song with a skeletal beginning, confessional lyrics and an elevated upsurge that sounds quintessentially LCD.

Second track ‘Other Voices’ is a far more groove-oriented number built on the group’s disco-punk bass energy and swirly keyboards, whilst a steady drum beat provides the solid backdrop for ‘I Used To’. “I still try to wake up/I’m still trying to wake up,” says the frontman in one of the more traditional sounding songs on the record.

David Bowie’s name has come up a lot in this reformation, with the deceased genius one of the figures who convinced Murphy to get the band together, and ‘Change Yr Mind’ could easily have been taken from Let’s Dance or Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). “I've just got nothing left to say, it runs/I'm in no place to get it right/and I'm not dangerous now/The way I used to be once/I'm just too old for it now,” cries Murphy in potentially tongue-in-cheek fashion.

‘How Do You Sleep?’, meanwhile, is a ridiculously slow burning nine-minute track that is masterfully arranged with a delicate drum and deep synth combo that terrifically builds up and should make for an astounding live showing should it make it into the set list. ‘Tonite’ eventually follows and is the closest the record comes to a ‘chart hit’ with its solid percussion and catchy synthetics.

First single ‘Call The Police’ is another that builds with its sonic ripples and bass guitar layers that orchestrates into an ‘All My Friends’-esque wig out. The same goes for fellow single ‘American Dream' with its sing-along framework. The album then ends on the heavy ‘Emotional Haircut’ with its call-and-response catchphrase and the epic 12-minute long ‘Black Screen’, which concludes with a simple piano and bass pulse in one of the saddest moments in LCD’s back catalogue.

But that’s not what fans of the band will feel like after hearing this record. It’s a beautifully produced, masterfully realised album that cements Murphy’s position as one of the finest, most obscure songwriters of his generation.

Paul Hill

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