Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 12/03/07
Label: DFA/EMI

It's something of shibboleth but also a truism to describe really great music as having the power to "transport" you elsewhere. "Sound Of Silver" is a meta-trip, a voyage that's both beautiful and strange; warmly nostalgic and bracingly unfamiliar. It takes us through the downtown hub of Detroit's club district in 1985; along the Manchester Ship Canal four years later; speeding at a steady metronomic pace down a German Autobahn in 1977 and 1978 heading heroically through Berlin's pink triangle in 1979. We may recognize the starting points but it's safe to say that the destination is somewhere new.

So, this strong contender for album of the year opens with a sonic joke. A sample of the Casio PT50 intro to "Losing My Edge" - James Murphy's knockout 2002 entrance - seems to be asking the listener to get ready for the same tricks, before the beat slowly morphs into Kraftwerk's "Robots", through a pulsating house groove which references early Human League and then "Low" period Bowie. By the time Nancy Whang's electro disco vocal refrain kicks in, however, "Get Innocuous" is pure LCD.

The propulsive and rattling rhythms are like that of a clattering train speeding towards somewhere unfathomably exciting and (like all really superb dance music you can listen to at home) it also manages to recreate the experience of being transported somewhere mentally by your poison of choice in a nightclub, whether that be drink, dancing or something a little stronger. In fact, listening to "Sound Of Silver" straight is rather like listening to more average house music when you're in a mind-altered state.

Lead off single "North American Scum" is arguably the weakest song here, but even then Murphy's sarcastic and playful rant about his shame at being a yank is only let down by the daft assertion that France and England are full of mime artists. After then things really take off with the sublime "Someone Great", where prime OMD and Heaven 17 synth pop make a beautiful backing to a story of undisclosed tragedy. The chiming melancholy is akin to the feelings that overwhelm you in the final stages of heartbreak when you realise you're almost done with feeling awful; which in turn makes you feel guilty.

After the terrific Can and Joy Division tinted "All My Friends" comes an absolute rock solid dancefloor banger in the shape of "Us v Them", comprising eight minutes of ferocious cowbell led punk funk. And as we reach "New York I Love You", Murphy's incongruous closing lament to his native city, another beam of light from this hugely gifted and versatile sonic auteur is burrowing its way into your consciousness. From the States to Europe along a shared musical underground, "Sound Of Silver" takes you away to distant horizons and you'll never be quite the same again.

    by John Doran