Disastrous Now

LCD Soundsystem “I Can Change”

James Murphy has excellent taste and builds his songs from top-notch reference points, but his genius is in the way he understands how those sounds function and resonate. When he appropriates elements from older records, it’s not some surface-level affectation or empty gesture of nostalgia. Instead, it’s all in the service of articulating an emotion and/or provoking a particular physical reaction. Although sometimes you can trace a sound on an LCD Soundsystem song to a specific record, more often the reference is more vague and intuitive — it’s the sound and feeling of a type of song, something in your cultural memory that may be a bit hazy but nonetheless stirs up precise sense memories and an odd cocktail of emotions.

“I Can Change” is a certain type of song, for sure. It’s the yearning, romantic ’80s new wave ballad, boppy but sentimental, lovesick in the glow of tacky neon colors. There are echoes of Bowie, Human League, Gary Numan, OMD, and a few dozen synthpop bands people barely remember, but more than anything, it’s James Murphy singing his own song about his own experience in his own voice. His songs may call back to other works, but Murphy is always present in his music, and his distinct character is a lot of what makes the music work — we need that recognizable person to identify with, it makes everything more powerful, pointed, and poignant. The style of “I Can Change” is flawless, but the substance of it is sublime. Like the best of LCD Soundsystem, it taps into the ineffable quality that makes songs great rather than just nodding in the general direction of better songs.

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