"Losing My Edge" is the debut single by American rock band LCD Soundsystem. It was released as a 12-inch single in July 2002, through DFA Records. It was later featured on the CD version of their eponymous debut studio album. "Losing My Edge" peaked at number 115 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also listed at number 13 on Pitchforks Top 500 Songs of the 2000s list. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 40 on its "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" list. In June 2018, Rolling Stone listed it at number 77 on its "The 100 Greatest Songs of the Century – So Far" list.
Background
In an interview with the music site "ireallylovemusic", James Murphy explained his inspiration for the song: In another interview, Murphy elaborated further on the birth and the release of the song:
So I started going to different types of things and meeting different people, and started throwing parties. And all of a sudden, I was kind of cool, I'd always just been a total... not even an outsider, just sort of a nobody, a sort of invisible, sad and kind of shy. And all of a sudden I was DJing, and felt cool, throwing parties. And then one night I went to go see a band, and somebody else was playing the records that I was playing. Nobody else was playing the records that I was playing, that was sort of my thing! And I got really mad, and I got really defensive. And I was like 'What the heck, that's mine! What the--who the hell is this? Some 22-year-old...', and I got really embarassed by being like 'These aren't your records, you didn't write them, you just... play them, you just own them, you can't be proud of yourself for owning them' but I was mad at the same time because I was like 'I know that kid was at one of my parties...'. It was this really dense conflict that I couldn't resolve, and that's where 'Losing My Edge' came from. I didn't have a good answer. I was angry, but I was also pathetic for being angry. There wasn't really a right or wrong, you know? I was right and wrong, and this kid was right and wrong, and everybody there was right and wrong. It felt really dense, and really easy to write from. Easy to make something from.
So I made that song, and everybody thought it was terrible. I remember playing it to people, and they'd give you this face, you know, when they don't want to say anything! And they'd ask me about technical stuff like 'Oh, what are the drums?' and I was like 'OK, you don't like this'. And Phil Mossman, who was the original LCD guitar player, was the only person that was like 'I love this, I really love this, it's very funny'. So we put it out, and the people from the label, my two partners Tim and Jonathan afterwards said 'We just thought you were making a big mistake, you're gonna look like an idiot, and we just feel bad for you'. It was the B-side to 'Beat Connection' until the last minute. I thought 'No, that should be the A-side, that should be the one I should sink or swim with.'
