LCD Soundsystem's upcoming third album will be their last. James Murphy has made good on a string of earlier comments, confirming plans to wrap up the project "and then go do something else".
"It just [seems] perfect," Murphy told BBC Radio's Zane Lowe in an interview this week. "We'll make this the last record and we'll do exactly what we want and go out happy." Murphy's use of the first person plural is telling. Although most see LCD Soundsystem as the DJ's solo project, it's a group involving several consistent collaborators, including Pat Mahoney, Al Doyle and Nancy Whang.
If LCD Soundsystem are to be adjourned, it doesn't just mean a name change: it means a reinvention.
"I feel good about it and really positive," Murphy said. "I think that it's nice to feel like it's the last one and we'll tour really hard and then go do something else."
To record the follow-up to 2007's celebrated Sound of Silver, Murphy headed to Los Angeles. Working there, he said, was easy. "[But] then when I [got] back to New York ... all the other things started happening. The typical 'you gotta get your artwork in' and all this other stuff. And I just decided it's been a while since I wanted to worry about any of that stuff. So, as much as I love making the record and going on tour and everything like that, I was like, 'Man, if I have to worry about this stuff any more ...'"
We already have some hints of Murphy's future plans. "[James] is quite keen to do a disco thing," band-mate Al Doyle said in 2008. Murphy is also about to release a soundtrack album for director Noah Baumbach's film, Greenberg. The soundtrack includes seven songs with vocals, Murphy told Pitchfork, inspired by the 1970s home-recording techniques of Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson.
LCD Soundsystem's third album will be released on 17 May. Their next – and possibly last – UK/Ireland tour begins 20 April.
