CD OF THE WEEK

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Sound of Silver DFA/EMI
*****

After seven minutes and 10 seconds, you clock that you're in the presence of one of the year's most extraordinary records. That's opening track Get Innocuous casting a euphoric spell that really doesn't end until the second album from James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem comes to a close. Your immediate reaction will probably be to play Get Innocuous - with its cocky "you can't normalise, don't it make you feel alive?" chant, Krautrock rough edges and slinky electronic tones - over and over again. It is, after all, the tune that a modern Talking Heads prodded by an Eno would probably make.

To date, Murphy's form has revolved around such hipster-baiting tunes as Losing My Edge and Daft Punk Are Playing at My House, but Sound of Silver trumps everything dance-punk's Mark E Smith and his DFA production team have ever put their name to. It's the first great electronic album to come along in an age, an album where the creator is smart enough to round off its incandescent riffs, glorious grooves and punky melodies with great songs.

The anti-American scorn on North American Scum, the emotional, lovelorn stomp of Someone Good and the deeply felt chagrin on New York I Love You are signs that Murphy has found just what his electronic rock'n'roll needs in order to move to the next level. Few this year will better what Murphy has produced here.   Jim Carroll

[ www.lcdsoundsystem.com ]