Hide Review
from pitchfork
No stranger to canny commercial tie-ins, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy has recorded a track for new action movie 21, as Pitchfork news previously reported. Murphy's "Big Ideas" has already proven effective as a promotional tool-- now you've heard of 21-- while as music, its uptight funk groove, Prince-ly falsetto, and blistering lead guitar recall some of Murphy's previous big ideas. Though on first pass it doesn't sound like it would elbow anything off of the Sound of Silver track listing (watch your back, "Time to Get Away"). "Big Ideas" takes its time setting the cinematic scene, letting percussion build over an insistent bass line, synth squiggles, and some casual-sounding guitar noises for about two minutes before a harmonized "ahhh". For a moment Murphy's multi-tracked vocals evoke the guy who taught all the MTV kids to dance again-- "The way you make me feel," he intones-- and soon enough the song sounds like something you'd hear on the soundtrack to a movie involving MIT kids and casinos, or else a 21st-century "Mathnet". And a year's advance notice means maybe even the Academy will hear this.