American Dream

Murphy spent two years on the record that brought the band back, much of it in DFA's West Village building, which was sold that year; he said it was the last album made there. He described Bowie's advice to get uncomfortable, and critics heard the Berlin trilogy in its sound. He had hoped to have Leonard Cohen speak on the closing Black Screen, a twelve-minute farewell widely heard as addressed to Bowie, but Cohen died days after the idea came up. The songs deal with depression, fear and the ends of friendships, from the dreamlike opener Oh Baby through the nine-minute How Do You Sleep? and the protest song Call the Police.

It entered the Billboard 200 at number one and reached three in Britain. Pitchfork called it obsessed with endings; Entertainment Weekly heard it as urgent, angry and achingly self-aware; The Independent's Andy Gill was unconvinced. Mojo and Uncut named it album of the year, and Tonite won a Grammy.