Paperjam

45:33 by LCD Soundsystem

Music // Jane // 21st December 2006

I entered the London Marathon ballot pretty much convinced I wouldn’t get a place safe in the knowledge that some folk enter 5 times in succession before they’re given a place for sheer persistence. I recently found out that I did manage to get myself a place on the first attempt. Is this lucky?.

Well, with only 5 months to go I thought it was time I got my sorry arse into gear and did something approximating running, or at least something that involved a little more exertion than sitting on the sofa in my joggers scoffing stollen.

I can’t run without music as it means I can’t hear my own desperate cheyne-stoking. It’s also a great distraction and does help you keep up your pace and if a bit of a favourite comes on it cheers you up a little as you flail about the streets. So what to listen to to get me motivated, to make me want to leave the warm, cosy sofa on a dark and windy December night? Unable to master technology I was physically struggling to put together a decent playlist on my mp3 player, and I hadn’t moved much for the last 2 months so any excuse really not to get outside. So, 2 weeks later I still hadn’t managed to leave the house to start training. Then Jim seemed to have the perfect solution (hmm, thanks). Apparently LCD Soundsystem had joined up with Nike to produce 45 minutes and 33 seconds of ‘body music’. Called 45.33. Surely that was all that was needed for my lacking motivation! I wasn’t going to shuffle about on the streets of Leamington…I was going to sprint through the town to ’a long piece of music built around an arc designed for running’ created by dance punk legends. Jim, preferring racquet sports to running, also asked if I’d review it. I agreed and 3 weeks later he got a copy to me.

So 5 weeks after intending to start my training for the marathon I had all I needed to get started. But the weather wasn’t great….and Christmas shopping….ummm…and there was the grout in the bathroom that looked like it needed bleaching. Still no running 5 weeks and 2 days after I got my place. But I’d said I’d review the CD……

So I put it on whilst driving to work. Not exactly the kind of physical exersion that requires the ‘reward and push’ LCD had perhaps intended. In the car I wasn’t too convinced….maybe it just wasn’t driving-through-Coventry-music. There was nothing else for it. I’d have to wipe the cobwebs from my trainers, remove the hibernating doormouse and pop them on my feet.
So…5 weeks and 6 days on…….

The first 27 seconds take me back to primary school PE/Drama days. The track begins with an electronic rising scale and I have an urge to stop running, drop to the floor and curl up in a ball on the pavement from where I’ll slowly emerge from a tiny acorn into a mighty oak tree (well there’s a sport theme there somewhere I suppose).

A beat starts and it’s a little too slow for me. I don’t run particularly fast it’s more a case that the first few minutes sound a little like the kind of music you might find in a hushed, chilled out bar but as a keyboard starts after 1 minute or so I’m warming to it and I’m happy plodding along for about 3 minutes….then the vocals begin and it becomes the perfect soundtrack to a Lynx advert and it’s all a bit too Room 5 for me. But this doesn’t persist (thankfully). At around…10 minutes the pace picks up. This section has really grown on me – I even really like the glockenspiel effect. It’s a bloody cold night but although this isn’t the sort of music I’d normally run to, and there’s a good chunk of stollen sat on the kitchen table in lovely warm home tempting me back, I’m happy enough.

The track gradually develops and keeps a steady pace to maintain my interest and distract me from the effort and my wheezing lungs for the next 10 minutes. But more vocals begin again. They’ve been slowed down and don’t really fill you with a desire to keep going, they don’t sound that great and I’m reminded of Josh Winks – not in a good way. I don’t like this section at any other time I’ve listened to it either. The instrumental sounds like it would be o.k. without this chap carrying on over it. But him and then a disco chick are relentless for the next 7 minutes or so. And then the brass section joins in and I’m not really listening now, I’m chatting to my running buddies.

At 30 minutes the pace finally increases to something more challenging to run to and spur you on a bit, but it’s been a long time coming.
Things begin to slow down around 37 minutes and start to sound very much like the random chimes of a relaxation tape. But I’m still a mile or so from home and end up flicking on to something else.

I think it’s a little too monotonous for me to run too in all honesty. There’s not enough variation and when I run I like something to think about and if the streets are clear perhaps even have a bit of a squawk along to. I also find that the pace doesn’t’ vary much and it is a little slow for too long. It does speed up a little after about 30 minutes but it doesn’t last. James Murphy runs on a running machine. That’s monotonous too. I was happy enough running along to it for the evening but I already would usually run along to a number of LCD tracks which I feel are much better suited to the job than 45.33. For me it definitely belongs in the background somewhere.

I believe Jim’s mate (EDITORIAL NOTE: That'll be Steve) swears by it as the perfect sound track for washing the dishes – I might give that a try. I don’t dislike it but for me it’s not for running to….its just a bit disco/lounge bar/too cool for school. Doesn’t hit the spot. Sometimes the genre just isn’t right for the purpose of the track

But Murphy’s done one of the things he set out to do which was to create something other than ‘easily digestible lumps of music’. But for me to listen to whilst running it‘s exactly that, the sort of ‘short and sweet’ distraction I prefer.