LCD Soundsystem: London Sessions – review

(DFA/Parlophone)

London Sessions is not a live album, exactly, but a live set recorded as though John Peel were still around to enthuse gruffly at its end. Without the distraction of an audience baying at the allotted intervals, LCD are free to pulsate along iridescently, evolving many of their best songs into even more engaging forms. "All I Want" grows both poppier and more mantric. Much like Peel himself, LCD main man James Murphy is a stern softy whose pacing is impeccable. His most sentimental tracks – "All My Friends", chiefly – gain a hundredweight of pathos here because this is, supposedly, the last we will hear of this extraordinary dance band.

Contributor

Kitty Empire

The GuardianTramp

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