James Murphy is undoubtedly as skillful at crafting excellent records as a priest is at drafting sermons.

But unlike men of the clergy, Murphy doesn’t come off as pushy or obsessed with following the rules.

Instead, the man behind LCD Soundsystem has created a near-perfect blend of rock and club tracks on his latest album, Sound of Silver. The tracks on this album are crisp and calculated but manage to avoid coming off like a metronome was doing all the work keeping rhythm instead of the musician.

Though the album is identifiable if not reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem’s 2005 self-titled album, Murphy seems to pull off the transitions between rock and dance rhythms with significantly more ease this time.

“North American Scum” is one of the more playful tracks to grace Sound of Silver with simple beats and coy lyrics. Murphy narrates, “We build our planes and our trains ’til we think we might die, far from North America/ Where the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes/I hate the feeling when you’re looking at me that way/ ‘Cause we’re North Americans/ But if we act all shy it’ll make it OK, makes it go away…”

With “Us V. Them” Murphy returns to his old tricks with perfectly placed cowbells and fun harmony in a track about wanting to spoil everyone else’s fun – “And so all the good people wanna rescue/ All the small people wanna talk to you/ All the clever people wanna tell you/ All the little people wanna dance its true/ Cloud, block out the sun/ Over me, over me/ And spoil, spoil all the fun.”

There isn’t a single flop on Sound of Silver, and Murphy’s innate sense of sound and skill in mixing make the album chock full of hits that serve both radio and the dance floor well.