One year since re-emerging from an announced 2011 retirement, LCD Soundsystem has finally delivered long-awaited new music.
The day before their scheduled performance on “Saturday Night Live,” the James Murphy-fronted electro rock band dropped both “Call the Police” and “American Dream” at the stroke of midnight in respective time zones around the world.
In a lengthy post on the band’s Facebook page Thursday morning, Murphy wrote, “in other news, we’re releasing two songs tonight at midnight (and i mean, literally, midnight. Wherever you are. So, like, Australia first, and so on and so forth) via the digital things that people use now on their devices. These songs are named ‘Call the Police’ and ‘American Dream.’ We played them both at Brooklyn Steel. They’re new,” adding, “Seriously almost done with the LP.”
The more driving of the two tracks, “Call the Police,” debuted several hours earlier on BBC Radio 6. The more somber “American Dream,” followed shortly after when the tracks both premiered via digital retailers in Australia. The band played both tracks for the first time, along with a third song reportedly titled “Tonight,” during their five-night residency at Brooklyn Steel in New York City in April.
Although no album release date has been announced yet, Murphy explained he was optimistic about the new music. “It’s been one of the most enjoyable records to make in my life,” he wrote. “If not the most fun ever (I think it is, for sure, the happiest I’ve ever been making a record.)”
The band’s only other new music in recent years was a track called “Christmas Will Break Your Heart,” which they released on Christmas Eve in 2015.
Related content: ‘SNL’ Lines Up Katy Perry, Haim and LCD Soundsystem as Musical Guests
LCD Soundsystem formally reunited in 2016 as headliners at Coachella, after signing with Rob Stringer at Columbia Records. Their busy 2016 also included festival gigs last summer at Bonnaroo (Manchester, Tenn.), Panorama (New York City), Lollapalooza (Chicago), and FYF (Los Angeles).
Murphy and crew have a busy festival touring schedule this summer as well, with stops that include the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta (May 12-14), RBC Bluesfest in Ottowa, ON, Canada (July 12), the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Ky. (July 14-16), the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago (July 14,) Splendour in the Grass in Yelgun, New South Wales, Australia (July 23), and the Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata Prefecture, Japan (July 28-30).
SNL released two promos for LCD Soundsystem’s upcoming appearance. In the first, host Chris Pine and star Kate McKinnon dance around the set to the band’s hit, “Dance Yrself Clean.” In the next, Murphy jokingly walks off set after learning that Kenan Thompson wasn’t, in fact, the show’s host, prompting Pine to plead for “Mr. Soundsystem” to return.
