LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

 An earlier version of this article was published in The Omega.

4/5 Stars
LCD Soundsystem’s  This Is Happening was easily the best American release of 2010.  LCD Soundsystem is one of those rare bands that started out at a high point with their 2005 self-titled debut and has only gotten better with every subsequent release. 

For front man, James Murphy, the last five years seem to have been one long hipster midlife crisis.  Whether he was singing Losing My Edge as he watched “the kids” take over his scene, or he was looking back at past booze-filled friendships in painful nostalgia in All My Friends, Murphy has been slowly watching his coolness fall apart(in an extremely cool way, I might add). 

Despite this, Murphy falls apart like he has never fallen apart before on This Is Happening, and while this might sound like a depressing album, LCD Soundsystem’s particular brand of post-punk dance never allows Murphy to wallow for too long. 

LCD Soundsystem’s ability to take simple sounds and chord progressions and make them interesting is astounding. While LCD Soundsystem has always had their own distinct sound, bringing together dance, punk, new wave and 60s pop music into a twisted collage of music, This Is Happening is heavily influenced by the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop.  This seems ironic considering earlier comments by Murphy.  "It’s kind of soul-crushing in a way to listen to ‘Perfect Day’ and say ‘I’m gonna go write a song like that’ and it’ll be fucking horrible by comparison,” he said in an interview with Pitchfork.com.  The creeping sound of Somebody Is Calling Me is so close to Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing that it almost seems like a form of musical plagiarism.  It’s Murphy’s clean voice that raises the song above its roots—he sounds lost in a sleazy Iggy Pop inspired world, enjoying himself but looking for an escape route. 

The album opener Dance Yrself Clean, begins with a pitter-patter beat and Murphy mumbling about his difficulty with social situations. “Walking up to me expecting words, it happens all the time,” Murphy mumbles in despair.  But three minutes later an unexpected synthesizer rips through the speakers, and Murphy is back out on the dance floor, singing “I miss the way the night goes with friends who always make it feel good.”

While, Murphy bares his soul at times, as when he tries to convince a lover not to leave on “Can Change,” This Is Happening is also lacerating at times. Pow Pow takes jabs at his critics while fighting off the “the kids” who are taking over his scene.  “Your time will come, but tonight is our night, so you should give us all your drugs,” he says cheekily, only to rage seconds later that “you don’t know shit about where I am from that you didn’t get from your TV.” 

This line between cheekiness and anger is again played with on the nine minute song You Wanted A Hit.  It is the brazenness of the album that makes it seem fitting that Murphy has said that it will be the LCD Soundsystem’s last work.  His musical midlife crisis seems to have hit a peak and he seems ready to move onto new things.