Every Monday, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries at 2 p.m. every Sunday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
LCD Soundsystem just slyly announced a fifth album (that isn’t even finished yet) by releasing the minimalistic single, “x-ray eyes.” The song is stark, chill and unembellished, and it sinks into repetition as a groove. Yet it also feels like a refreshing back to basics.
I really like this for a first single because the full album could tip either way. It’s a good warmup, a good toe in the water, so to speak. Plus, I like the playful spirit. It feels like James Murphy is either tired of everything or just toying with his fans — and I think his true fans are OK with that.
You can listen to “x-ray eyes” everywhere now via Sony Records (we’ll also throw it into regular rotation starting this week on 88Nine) and as the feature track on this 100th(!) episode of What’s All This. Just hit the “Listen” button at the top of the page to hear all the tunes from the playlist below, and make sure to find the show on 88Nine at 2 p.m. every single Sunday.
This week’s best new music
- Stella Donnelly, “Cold”
- Panda Bear, “Gettin’ to the Point (ft. Sonic Boom)”
- Twen, “HaHaHome”
- Julia Jacklin, “Love, Try Not To Let Go”
- Thee Sacred Souls, “Future Lover”
- Jonathan Personne, “Nuage Noir”
- Fionn Regan, “ISLANDS”
- Chastity Belt, “That Guy”
- urika’s bedroom, “Century Love”
- Gigi Perez, “Fable”
- Quivers, “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind (Yo La Tengo cover)”
- LCD Soundsystem, “x-ray eyes”
