Someone Great Is Back

James Murphy has reunited LCD Soundsystem and made a comeback album, and he doesn’t care if that’s a cliché.

- David Marchese

WHEN LCD SOUND SYSTEM called it quits in 2011 after three studio albums and a joyful, teary, and allegedly final concert at Madison Square Garden, it seemed as if the band’s mastermind, James Murphy, had achieved that rarest of music-world maneuvers—the graceful bow-out. But just underneath the meticulous dance grooves and hyper-self-aware lyrics of LCD’s music was always a deep vein of punkish restlessness. Thus, perfect endings be damned, the band’s forthcoming reunion album, American Dream. “I shed any ambivalence about coming back a while ago,” says Murphy. “Whether or not other people have, I can’t say.”

The first three LCD albums formed such a perfect conceptual triangle. How does American Dream fit in with what came before?

It’s a completely new phase for the band. Everything from 2002 to 2011 is a thing, and now this is the beginning of another period. So there’s a big fucking moat of breaking the band up and coming back that helps clarify different eras. Also, it used to be that the only reason I could allow myself to make LCD Sound system records was that I’d be DJ-ing and frustrated that there wasn’t more music that fit the need of dancing but wasn’t “dance” music—so I made that music. But as I get older I’m more at home writing proper songs. There’s something more classic about that, which could be worse or better. But for the moment, I like this record more than I like other records I’ve made.

Even in just an emotional perks kind of way, how much did you miss being in LCD Sound system?