LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
(Virgin)
Words: Bryant Kitching
On the outside James Murphy seems like a hopelessly unlikely candidate for leader of the indie dance-punk movement. I mean, the guy looks like the weird cousin that your family doesn’t talk to anymore. He has a permanent 5 o’clock shadow, a potbelly, and a wardrobe that I’m pretty sure consists solely of plain white t-shirts. Is this the guy who is going to finally get hipsters to dance? The simple answer is yes. 2007’s Sound of Silver was a tour de force of an album as well as a clinic for how to make dance music. On his highly anticipated This Is Happening, Murphy doesn’t seem phased by the massive amount of pressure that accompanies the follow-up to such an album. Usually after releasing an album as acclaimed as Sound of Silver, the artist either attempts to go off in some questionable new direction (MGMT) or tries to simply rehash old ideas. On This Is Happening, Murphy has managed to create something that sounds like a superb continuation of his last ears couldn’t be happier.
Opening track, “Dance Yrself Clean,” starts with a slow, electronic rumble under Murphy’s uniquely cynical lyrics. “Every night’s a different story, it’s a thirty car pile-up with you, everybody’s getting younger, it’s the end of an era, it’s true,” he exclaims towards the song’s explosive second half. It’s an adequate starting point because it’s a microcosm of everything that makes Murphy inimitable and in a league of his own. “Drunk Girls,” the album’s first single follows in the same vein as songs like “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” and “North American Scum” from the previous records. “Drunk Girls” bears a strong resemblance to The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/ White Heat,” but Murphy’s slacker sarcasm gives the song a certain comical charm that makes it all his own.
After the good-but-not-great, “One Touch,” the album kicks into high gear with three absolutely killer tracks back to back to back. The middle portion of This is Happening, containing tracks, “All I Want,” “I Can Change,” and “You Wanted A Hit,” echoes the equally epic midsection of Sound of Silver, which consisted of now-indie-classics, “Someone Great,” “All My Friends,” and “Us vs. Them.” “All I Want” in particular stands out as the album’s best track. Comparisons to David Bowie’s “Heroes” aside, Murphy’s cynicism has never sounded so heartfelt and painfully melancholy. Above a whining guitar riff, he doesn’t display as much of the reverent nostalgia that drove “All My Friends,” but rather an almost sarcastic apathy, shown by I want is your bitter tears.”
Something that always drew me to Murphy was his uncanny ability to acknowledge and embrace the often- ridiculous indie scene of which he has ironically emerged as one of the leaders. This was overtly apparent on his first 2005 single, “Losing My Edge,” and is echoed on another standout from This is Happening, “Pow Pow.” On the partially spoken-word track, Murphy seems to mock just about everyone he can think of. He whines, “we have a black president, and you do not, so shut up, because you don’t know shit about where I’m from that you didn’t get from your TV.” This brash honesty is hard to come by in the indie-dance genre. It’s uniquely LCD Soundsystem and thoroughly refreshing. The latter half of the album is not as strong as the former, largely due to the only blatant misstep, the lackluster, “Somebody’s Calling Me.” The final track, “Home,” is an interesting contrast to the last track on Sound of Silver, “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.” Where a couple of years ago it seemed that Murphy wanted to get the hell out of The Big Apple, now he can’t seem to get back fast enough. If this is in fact Murphy’s last release as LCD Soundsystem as he has claimed, then at least he will have gone out on a marvelously bright note.
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