LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
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CD Details
Artist: LCD SoundsystemEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-05-18
Music Label: DFA/Parlophone
Soundtracks:
- Dance Yrself Clean 8:56
- Drunk Girls 3:42
- One Touch 7:45
- All I Want 6:41
- I Can Change 5:52
- You Wanted A Hit 9:06
- Pow Pow 8:23
- Somebody's Calling Me 6:53
- Home 7:53
Music reviews of This Is Happening
Music Review: This Ain't Happening
Rating: 3 Stars
At some point between LCD Soundsystem's eponymous debut and their latest release, This Is Happening, their music went from poignant cultural criticism to trite vulgarity. Regardless of its simplicity, the first track in their catalogue "Daft Punk is Playing at my House" is a catchy, beguiling meta-song of sorts, venturing outside of itself to remind you that you are listening to music. Still, it manages to transport you to Murphy's world, where only celebrities are good enough. That's right, Daft Punk is playing at his house. On the only pop cut off This Is Happening, "Drunk Girls," Murphy condescends to his cultural serfs to inject a deceitful bit of mockery onto the dancefloor. I can hear King James laughing from up high as his subjects celebrate their own pathetic image. Besides my rejection of the affront, any song designed as generic DJ bar fodder is enough to be scratched from my playlist.
James Murphy attempts a daring balancing act when trying to be accessible with "Drunk Girls," but then challenging the listener's aesthetics with "Somebody's Calling Me." Although I have no problem with the avant-garde, John Cage was often annoying, but never so grating. Between the plodding pace, heavily modulated synths, and lyrics so boring they lose all meaning, this is the epitome of a throw-away track. "All I Want" is a decent enough ballad with a good progression for concise almost seven minutes, but the audience is more likely to sway with their lighters than dance.
This Is Happening is not a total loss, though: LCD Soundsystem finally strikes a chord on the closer, "Home." Built on a driving beat and pulsing synths, Murphy instructs us with his intelligent social commentary. And despite being kitschy, "Pow Pow" builds a polyrhythmic groove skyward to the shimmering, though short-lived, ceiling. Meanwhile, however, we are forced to endure Murphy's neurotic ranting about his weekend travels, insignificant twitter feuds, and nonsense about perspectives and decisions.
Following the fresh, post-punk genius of Sound of Silver, it's hard to see This Is Happening as anything but a let down. Even at its best, LCD's latest effort never approaches the building, churning, mutating balls of funkiness of three years earlier. Try as it might, many songs here are pitiful b-sides to a corollary on SOS: "Pow Pow" is a confounding revision of "North American Scum," complete with chanting and pithy one-liners; " "All I Want" feels like a tired, elderly version of "All My Friends;" while the embracing demonic, hedonist nature of "Get Innocuous!," "One Touch" has an atonal, aimless composition; and with glassy synths and tender vocals, "I Can Change" recalls "Someone Great," but lacks the delicate beauty of its predecessor. In many ways, This is Happening is a response to The Future Will Come by DFA second-in-command, The Juan MacLean, just as that album was a response to SOS, yet it never comes close the playful euphoria of, for instance, "Happy House."
Like the song titles, the album plays like a lame night out at the bars, from drunk dancing, to flirting, to fighting, to passing out. "You Wanted A Hit" and "Dance Yrself Clean" contain enough energy and melody to actually propel a crowd, although they sit idle for the first three minutes - the time it takes many songs to run their course. Single option #2, "I Can Change," while being emotionally profound, is so dull it's a mystery that it continues on for longer than that. While the This Is Happening is chock-full of wit, and there are bits of enjoyment to be had here and there, it is a fragmented work with insufficient highs to redeem the overwhelming tedium.
Description of This Is Happening
2010 release, the third album proper from James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem, follows 2007's warmly received 'Sounds Of Silver'. Musically inspired by late 1970's David Bowie, This Is Happening also has artwork that directly references Bowie's classic 1979 album Lodger. The record retains Murphy's idiosyncratic sense of humour and includes the single 'Drunk Girls'. EMI.Pop CDs
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