On Friday, LCD Soundsystem released its “comeback” album, American Dream. My feelings on it are mixed — I love the music, but James Murphy can be a prickly, even annoying presence.

To get to the bottom of LCD Soundsystem, I called up someone who knows a lot more about James Murphy than I do, author and critic Lizzy Goodman, whose recent book Meet Me In The Bathroom is an oral history of the NYC rock scene in the ’00s.

We talked about Murphy’s background as a failed indie musician who found fame in his 30s by co-founding DFA Records, refashioning himself as a skilled architect of dance-rock records. We also cover Murphy’s decision to revive LCD Soundsystem, and how American Dream fits with the rest of the band’s catalog.