The second full-length release from LCD Soundsystem – the side project of modern-day Rumpelstilskin, producer James Murphy – proves once again that everything he touches really does turn to gold. But by the end of this nine-track medley, as smart lyrics and synth beats melt into precious yellow metal, you’ll forget all about the riches and just beg for a goddamn dance floor.

Less hard-rocking and more soundboard than LCD’s 2005 self-titled debut, Sound of Silver is a busy beehive, shifting between softly distorted buzzes and crisp outbursts to create mountain-moving song lengths that channel everything from ’50s doo-wop to ’80s dance-pop. “”North American Scum”” gets political, repeating simple frustrations like “”Oh I don’t know, I don’t know, oh, where to begin,”” keeping things light with thin guitar fuzz and enough cowbell to get Will Ferrell off.

Murphy’s synthesized voice meets the perfect balance of haze and clarity – obscured electronic beeps with the clean tap of a xylophone – on “”Someone Great,”” a love song that settles beautifully and without sap. Nothing is too sweet; there is enough rhythmic percussion and eerie chanting on the title track to satisfy any love-defiant convulsing urges.

To finish off the masterpiece, “”New York, I Love You,”” is a gentle piano-power ballad with raw vocals that evoke the honest chill of last call, when that final Sparks can is raised to the sky and no one wants the night – or the album – to end. Murphy soothes to complacency, but then layers melt and mold and shift to the point of frenzy, until we have barely enough energy to thank James Murphy for all his hard work.