Album of the Week: LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
First things first, Sound of Silver was one of the albums of the last decade. I’m pretty sure I placed it at fifth when I put together a list about six months ago.
North American Scum and Tribulations (from 2005′s messy but decent debut) both sit comfortably in the top 10 of my iTunes ‘most played’ list and I regard James Murphy as one of my era’s finest lyricists and something of a musical genius.
So it’s fair to say This Is Happening is an album I was always going to seek out and treat favourably, despite a handful of so-so reviews elsewhere.
Sound of Silver it ain’t but if, as expected, this is Murphy’s last album under the LCD banner, it’s a worthy sign-off.
It’s not perfect. For example, the Bowie-esque Drunk Girls is something of a dud and Somebody’s Calling Me feels aimless.
Even the opener Dance Yrself Clean takes an age to warm up. With LCD you expect bangin tunes and thumping bass (™ Spaced 2000), but after a frustratingly lo-fi start these only kick-in at 3.07. Thereafter, however, the song’s a stormer.
Even better is floor-filler One Touch despite Nancy Whang’s trademark squawking which I’d always thought were a bit superfluous.
All I Want is great too, despite its aching guitar making it sound like a Heroes knock-off and the bongo-fuelled headrush of Pow Pow is as good anything on Sound of Silver.
It’s good to see Murphy’s lyrics are as caustic and witty as ever. Nothing equals Losing My Edge but You Wanted a Hit rather neatly sends up heightened expectations of the band and Drunk Girls is a humourous social commentary.
LCD Soundsystem have ridden out the punk/funk scene (sorry – whatever did happen to the Rapture and Radio 4?) with style, made two great albums and one superb one. What Murphy does next will be very interesting indeed.
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[...] If this truly is to be LCD’s last album, then they’ve certainly gone out on a high. Not everything worked, but from the point where Dance Yrself Clean went supernova to the final bars of Pow Pow, it’s classic James Murphy. The influence of Bowie was massive but this was an homage rather than a pastiche and aside from two humdrum closing tracks, scintillating throughout. Full review’s here. [...]