‘I Can Change’: the songs that inspired LCD Soundsystem’s most “desperate” track
LCD Soundsystem have never been a group frightened of trying new things; mixing up their sound or incorporating new elements into their songs.
Bringing together a mix of rock, electronica, synth-pop, New Wave and dance music, they have been influenced and inspired by artists such as Brian Eno, David Bowie, The B-52’s and The Talking Heads at various points in their career, but it was yet another 1980s new wave act who inspired the sound on one of their most desperate songs.
In fact, the song ‘I Can Change’ felt so desperate to bandleader and singer James Murphy that he even had doubts about including it on their then-upcoming album This Is Happening at all. In a conversation with NME in 2010, he said, “I was like, ‘What’s the worst that’s gonna happen? People think I’m a simpering idiot? Fine.’ But I panicked about it, and I had Pat [Mahoney, LCD Soundsystem drummer] come in”.
When his bandmate eased his nerves, he decided to keep the song on the album after all. In the same interview, Murphy revealed the musical inspiration behind the track, saying that “I was constantly listening to the Sweet Dreams-era Eurythmics stuff” when he wrote it.
And he might not have just meant the iconic single but the whole of the Sweet Dreams album that Eurythmics released in 1983. ‘I Can Change sounds like a direct descendant of the Sweet Dreams opener, ‘Love Is A Stranger’. Both songs are awash with synths, featuring a propulsive beat that pushes them both along, and have heavy repetition in their lyrics. ‘I Can Change’ also resembles the famous title track, with its repeating synth motifs running throughout the song and steady beat.
Something that ‘I Can Change’ does incredibly well is very obviously taking inspiration from such iconic tracks yet still managing to sound like its own song entirely. It never borders on pastiche or rip-off. The tune has got its own internal power and features an arresting vocal performance from Murphy. Somehow, it simultaneously sounds authentically like the 1980s and modern times.
Another noticeable contrast in the song is the way the music and lyrics counteract each other. With the upbeat arrangement, you’d be forgiven for thinking the track was telling a positive story, but it’s anything but. While the Eurythmics were singing ‘Sweet Dreams’, the story behind the lyrics in the LCD Soundsystem song is the stuff of nightmares.
Inspired by the break-up of Murphy’s marriage, the song is a plea for more time and a promise to change. He wants his wife to stay with him, to fall in love with him again, and he sings that he’ll do anything to make that happen. As he told The Sun, “I tried to do the best job I could with that song. I wanted to make it really beautiful. It’s music of desperation”.
In both interviews, with The Sun and NME, Murphy acknowledges that there was more than one musical influence on the song as well, saying that he’d been listening to Bronski Beat when working on the song, and so he had reached for a similar falsetto vocal style when recording it to the Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Sommerville. With its infectious synth lines and heartfelt lyrics, it wouldn’t be any surprise if this song, in turn, inspires some future tracks itself.
