It’s been more than seven years since LCD Soundsystem released a new album. But over the weekend leader James Murphy promised fans that the follow-up to 2010’s This is Happening will be “done soon.” After mounting their live comeback last year with a string of well-received reunion shows at music festivals around the globe, the group has been hard at work on their fourth full-length album after signing a deal with Columbia Records.
They even reportedly canceled a string of late 2016 shows in Asia in order to concentrate on the new sessions. In a Facebook chat with fans on Friday (Jan 13), one asked if there was any news on the new album. “Sure. Still working on it, but it’ll be done soon,” Murphy replied. “Winter tends to mess with my voice, so finishing the thing drags out.” (Click here to see the exchange.)
After some fans balked at the band’s reunion gig at Coachella last year, Murphy explained in a lengthy letter (which appears to have been removed) to them that he was getting the band back together for the right reasons. “i write songs all the time,” he explained. sometimes they’re just weird songs i sing while changing a baby, or songs about annoying things that i sing to myself, or to friends while sitting at a bar, or about christmas, or new york. sometimes these songs live in my head for years and have verses upon verses added to them, almost infinitely. sometimes they’re just ghosts of ideas, and sometimes they’re fully-formed things which float in front of me, seeming like they’d be easy to make flesh, only to fight furiously as soon as i try to pin them down in any way. some of them i make with friends in a room with instrument things. only a tiny fraction of these ever become songs; get recorded, feel like something that should be shared. those ones, i write the title or some lyrics of down on a page in a little book i carry around. or i sing a bit of them into a tape recorder (or now a phone, i guess). i’ve been doing this since i was a kid.”