LCD Soundsystem’s entire career has been an exercise in irony.

Disgruntled producer and DJ James Murphy, annoyed with the way his music career had stalled in his thirties, wrote the group’s deadpan debut single “Losing My Edge” on a whim, expressing his frustration at “the kids coming up from behind” over a driving bass and percussion groove.

“Losing My Edge,” released as a 12-inch single by Murphy’s DFA Records, joined the ranks of the “underground smashes” Murphy brags about owning in the track’s final breakdown, winning acclaim and modest commercial success.

After a brief hiatus in the early 2010s, the band reemerged in 2015 and has been semiregularly making music ever since. They seem to just drop a new album or song whenever they feel like it, and never in quite the way you’d expect.

Their new song — the first track they’ve put out since instant favorite “new body rhumba” in 2022 — premiered unannounced on NTS Radio.

It’s called “x-ray eyes,” and it’s pretty good.

It has the hallmarks of a classic LCD song: sprechgesang vocals, hypnotic synth loops and a pounding synth bassline.

Drummer Pat Mahoney provides a machine-like live drum bedrock, and the song seems at first to interpolate “Losing My Edge” before a synth lead reminiscent of beloved “This is Happening” cut “I Can Change” comes in, almost overwhelming Murphy’s vocals.

As we’ve come to expect from LCD Soundsystem, “x-ray eyes” doesn’t really sound like anything they’ve done before.

To me, it’s most reminiscent of some of their early deep cuts. The delivery evokes “On Repeat,” the swirling synths remind me of “Too Much Love,” and the song’s overall vibe oscillates between recalling “Freak Out / Starry Eyes” and their Alan Vega cover “Bye Bye Bayou.”

There’s no word yet as to whether this track heralds a new album or if it’s just a one-off release. I hope that it’s a lead single — they haven’t put out a full-length LP in seven years. Either way, it’s a welcome addition to the catalog of one of this century’s greatest bands.