American Dream (2017)

American Dream is the fifth studio album by the American rock band LCD Soundsystem, released on September 1, 2017, by DFA and Columbia. It was their first album in seven years, following This Is Happening (2010), and their first since disbanding in 2011.

LCD Soundsystem performed at large festivals and smaller shows to promote their reunion. "Call the Police" and "American Dream" were released together as the lead single, followed by "Tonite" and "Oh Baby".

American Dream reached number 1 on the Top Rock Albums chart and was LCD Soundsystem's first number-one album in the US, Canada and Portugal. It received acclaim, appeared on many year-end lists, and was named "Album of the Year" by Mojo and Uncut. At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and "Tonite" won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.

Background

LCD Soundsystem's previous studio album, This Is Happening, was released in 2010. The band announced their breakup in early 2011 and announced that they would end with a show at Madison Square Garden on April 2, 2011. Due to the raising of ticket prices by scalpers, the band made plans to perform warm-up shows at Terminal 5 in Manhattan, New York. After their final show, they released a documentary film in 2012, which followed the band prior to the show and featured footage of the actual performance. The album The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden, which contained the audio from the show, was released in 2014 as a Record Store Day release.

In October 2015, Consequence of Sound reported that LCD Soundsystem would be reuniting in 2016 and that they would be headlining "high-profile music festivals in the US and UK". This report was later confirmed by Billboard. However, DFA Records label manager Kris Petersen stated that LCD Soundsystem would not be reuniting. DFA co-founder Jonathan Galkin also confirmed this in a Pitchfork article. Two months afterward, the band released the Christmas-themed track "Christmas Will Break Your Heart", acting as their first piece of new material since their cover of Franz Ferdinand's "Live Alone", released in 2011. Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork both reported again, after the release of the Christmas single, that multiple sources could confirm a reunion in 2016.

On January 4, 2016, it was announced that LCD Soundsystem would be headlining the 2016 Coachella Festival. The following day, the band announced that they would be preparing a new album for 2016. It was later revealed that the band signed with Columbia Records. Following a backlash by some online users against the reunion, Murphy explained his reasoning for the reunion in a post on the band's website. He stated that he did not want to release a solo album with live performances including LCD Soundsystem members, nor did he want to release an LCD Soundsystem album with entirely different people playing live, that is, if the original members did not want to create a new record. He had invited past members Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney to his apartment to talk about releasing new material, and both agreed on making a new LCD Soundsystem record together.

Recording

The band recorded the album in multiple locations. Like previous albums Sound of Silver and This Is Happening, one of the recording locations was DFA Studios in New York City. Murphy announced after finishing recording that American Dream would be the last record to be recorded at the original DFA Studios building. Recording also took place at the Lanark, Strongroom, and Church Studios in London and B-Side Studios in Portland, Oregon. The band were forced to cancel tour dates for shows in Asia and Australia dated during the near-end of 2016 in order to complete work on the album. After this was revealed, it was suggested that the release date for the album would be moved into 2017, as opposed to the original prediction of 2016, as the recording was predicted to take another few months. It was noted in April 2017 that the band had been working on the album for 18 months. In a Facebook post in May, Murphy announced that the album was finished and that it was being prepared for mastering.

Composition

American Dream has been described as dance-punk, new wave, post-punk, synth-pop, art rock and dance-rock. Critics noted similarities to David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy. The lyrics deal with depression, social issues, fear, and ending of friendship and love. The closing track, "Black Screen", is an homage to Bowie. Murphy wanted to have Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen to perform a spoken word piece at the end of the track, but Cohen died a few days after he came up with the idea.