Christmas Will Break Your Heart by LCD Soundsystem
If you’re a turn-of-the-decade hipster, chances are all you wanted for Christmas this year was a new track from defunct dance-rock icons LCD Soundsystem. And, lucky you, you got it a day early with Christmas Will Break Your Heart, a softly-crooned ballad whose December 24th release has stoked recent rumors of a full-on reunion. As exciting as this is, though, the song is just as likely to induce tears of sadness as of joy - Christmas Will Break Your Heart is a devastating meditation on loneliness during the holidays that frontman James Murphy sings with palpable woe in his voice. Among the things Murphy warns Christmas can do are “crush your soul,” “wreck your head,” and “drown your love”--we’re a far cry from a winter wonderland, to say the least.
That said, it’s a gorgeous song. Driven early on by trickling piano between pounding downbeats, it adds rich harmonies as it builds to an anguished and beautiful climax that crashes down all too soon, leaving in its wake a solitary drifting drum beat reminiscent of the outro to David Bowie’s Five Years. I don’t know if the song simply resonates with me as someone who has struggled with depression, but it’s so powerful I can almost feel it in my chest. Between the beauty of the music, the sadness of the lyrics, and the thrill of getting new material from a band whose oddly-timed breakup culminated in a massive, four-hour farewell concert at Madison Square Garden, I couldn’t listen to anything else right now. Except, of course, for a full album of new LCD Soundsystem material, which I can only fantasize is currently in the works.