Aaron’s Best of the Decade: #4

#4
LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
Album: Sound of Silver
Year: 2007

The inception of this track actually comes a full year before Sound of Silver, from eight masterful minutes also known as section “(Iii)” of LCD Soundsystem‘s 45:33. A 2006 continuous mix commissioned by Nike as part of their Original Run Series, 45:33 ebbed and flowed at times supposedly tested to match the ideal pace for a 45 minute, 33 second jogging route. I just fell in love with the insistent whirring and whining of what would later become “Someone Great”.

Accompanied by fellow standout (and more rock-oriented) All My Friends as the dual centerpieces of 2007′s Sound of Silver, “Someone Great” brought me into the fold of electronic music. Yes, I had dabbled previously. Postal Service, emerging my freshman year of college, was well-positioned to make a run at my heart. Bits of icy synth from Junior Boys had peppered my playlists in 2005. Air convinced me that electronic music had the potential to be damn sexy. Still, electronic music comes from a background of long, long tracks with a slow evolution, a rise and fall. While LCD Soundsystem‘s best work has often sounded more like a modern update on Bowie than anything from house or trance, “Someone Great” owes a hell of a debt to techno, in terms of  length, but even more so in its reliance on repetition and slight variation. As James Murphy spreads on each subsequent layer of emotionally numbing sonic salve, the song’s complexity emerges, with rhythm and melody integrally intertwined.

I have yet to touch on the lyrics. From the opening lines, it is clear we are listening in on a break-up. Murphy sounds completely numb, disconnected, but his words hint at unparalleled devastation. Early on, he sums up the worst part of breaking up; all of the other’s faults vanish in an instant, until even your arguments with them take on a fond glow in your memory. His narration builds, explaining in so few words how easy it is to know that it’s coming and yet “nothing can prepare you for / the voice on the other end”.

Ever feel like life just shouldn’t keep on going as normal? That something too large has changed, and everything can’t just be okay?

“The worst is all the lovely weather / I’m stunned it’s not raining / The coffee isn’t even bitter / Because, what’s the difference”.

Amen.

Murphy‘s mournful, overwhelmed refrain “And it keeps coming” gives us our first emotional break, a chance to melt away from the words and back into the music. Just as you’ve relaxed, though, he hits you with the kicker. “You’re smaller than my wife imagined”. Twist the knife, James. Infidelity, because I wasn’t already intrigued enough. Only a couple of lines later, he seals the deal, repeating the song’s titular mantra “When someone great is gone” over and over, more funeral dirge than break-up ballad, before letting us off the hook, like a priest absolving us of our sins: “We’re saved for the moment / saved for the moment”.