LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening
8.444
LCD Soundsystem’s first, eponymous record was a rare one – it garnered near universal critical acclaim, yet also implored, no FORCED you to dance dance dance! 2007′s Sound Of Silver carried on this hot streak, and James Murphy has ever since become electro aristocracy, his name a by-word for how to do electro disco punk (or whatever you want to call it) which makes you scratch your chin while you pogo around the room.
No pressure then for this year’s third (and, rumours abound, final) Soundsystem release, This Is Happening. Customarily, Murphy rises to the self-appointed challenge by not only meeting the expectations of fans world-over, but bettering his previous two efforts.
Although the average track length is around 6 minutes (no surprise for a man whose 2006 single-track release 45:33 lasted, in fact for 45 minutes and 58 seconds) the atmosphere lurches between unapologetically catchy soon-to-be-dance floor fillers and trademark discourses in drawing the best out of a protracted, pure beat.
Dance Yrself Clean eases the listener in with a typically minimalist lo-fi path, ridden concurrently by a sunny harmony and Murphy’s almost spoken vocal line, before launching into a boisterous break. Murphy’s vocals, reminiscent of The Rapture’s Luke Jenner, howl over the reverb-heavy, bassy synth which crunches dreamily throughout the duration of the track’s 9 minutes.
While the record’s flagship single, Drunk Girls, may not be in the same league as Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, it runs it close for sheer, breathless playfulness. This it the punky element of Murphy’s alchemy: a messy, sweaty stomp that will very shortly be demanding to inhabit every perspiration-drenched dance-floor in the country. Ahead of the festival season, you have been warned.
One Touch allows the listener to catch some breath, breaking down into a Kraftwerk-esque electro-rise that continues inexorably through Murphy’s heavy vocals and trademark synth flourishes before leading onto another of the album’s strand-out tracks. All I Want is probably one of the best songs the band have ever recorded. Pitchfork have compared it to Bowie’s Heroes, and there certainly is some similarity in the faintly post-punk arrangement, vaguely melancholy keyboards and guitar lines that evoke the elegantly dissipated nature of Bowie’s classic. In its messy, overarching brilliance it’s very different from the more pared-down electro style of much of the rest of the album, but the way the squalling arrangement of sounds overpower Murphy’s astral vocals towards the end suggests an artist ambitious enough to try something so grandiose, and competent enough to make it work seamlessly. The briefest tinkling of vaudeville-esque pianos at the very end even hints at a more light-hearted tribute to the Starman’s greatest ever song.
For all the 21st century chops, a deep appreciation of older musical forms runs throughout the record. I Can Change can’t help but be reminiscent of the proto-electro of the 70s in its Casio synth lines and distantly soulful vocals. You Wanted A Hit is perhaps the albums’ biggest symbolic statement: at 9 minutes its muted electro-sheen and chugging chords are certainly not radio-friendly, but Murphy adds a pleasingly perverse note by intoning “you wanted a hit, but maybe we don’t do hits”. In its low-fi delivery it’s perhaps the most similar track in sound to their 2005 debut. It sounds like a very pointed statement to certain people and to the music industry as a whole, and it’s a perfectly weighted one at that.
Pow Pow is a chaotic blend of an unashamedly funky and fast drum line and yelped vocals, underpinned by dampened guitars and bass, while Somebody’s Calling Me is an unusually downbeat shuffle, with a soporifically funereal piano riff overlayed with wilfully discordant synths. The album is rounded off by Home, a fittingly diverse mashing of most of the styles appearing throughout the record, adorned with one of Murphy’s most pristine harmonies and wearing its euphoria on its sweat-stained sleeve.
If This Is Happening does happen to be LCD Soundsystem’s swansong, it will be a wholly fitting one. It bristles with the electro sounds honed on previous releases and through Murphy’s production work, but also takes no time to lose its inhibitions, making it a joyously dance-able record but also appreciable for its sheer quality. It sticks to the band’s twin qualities: unabashedly dancy party tracks and immaculate electro collages, and if this is Murphy’s last musical gift in his current guise, then it presents the world with a perfectly crystalline snapshot of what LCD Soundsystem are/were. If this only turns out to be his penultimate offering however, then we’ll really be in for a treat.
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