Culture Blues

Music: “This Is Happening” – LCD Soundsystem

Reviewing dance music takes a patient ear (much like reviewing Animal Collective); you have to be able to appreciate perceived "sonic monotony" and reconfigure your notions of dynamics and tension. One cannot assess a Hot Chip record the same way one would assess a Maiden record; it would be unfair to both acts and narrow-minded as far as palette is concerned (a beer is not a Scotch, after all). Although I have made it clear at various times throughout my reviews that I lack the proper confidence and coordination it takes to dance, I do like to bob my head, and I really have an appreciation for EDM. It's only human to enjoy tapping your foot or drumming with some utensils, after all, rhythm was around for a long time before melody. In the current fragmented, technology-based reality that is the music industry, electronic elements have wormed their way onto the records of just about every genre that doesn't outright shun the aesthetics. There are numerous acts responsible for the mainstreaming of EDM in today's musical climate and chief among them is LCD Soundsystem.

No matter how hard you try, you will never be as cool as James Murphy is when you are 40. Since the release of Losing My Edge, the first single from LCD Soundsystem (Murphy's musical project), in 2002, Mr. Murphy has ascended through the pantheon of DJ/producers to become as relevant, vital, and influential to the scene as any name you can muster. The success of Losing My Edge propelled LCD Soundsystem's self titled debut to a Top 20 slot on the UK charts, and helped Murphy to develop a massive European following while adding to his credibility among critics and hipsters alike. In 2007, Murphy released Sounds Of Silver, a now-sacred dance album of incomparable genius which is both universally acclaimed and widely ripped off by his contemporaries. Murphy has achieved the point as an artist where it seems like just about anything he touches turns to gold, so, when I sat down to listen to his newest release, This Is Happening, my expectations were immensely high- and saints be praised, they were met.

Let me make it clear right off the bat that this album in NOT as good as Sounds Of Silver (it comes REALLY fucking close, though). This Is Happening is a fantastic record with one truly AMAZING tune on it, but is about a track short of being an absolute classic. The album starts off with Dance Yrself Clean, a nine minute creeper that introduces itself with a minimalist rotary-drum and bass motif, and a vocal delivery that seems detached and apathetic (it's all stylized, of course). The track builds without any urgency until the 3:08 mark; then a four-hit snare riff cuts through the original groove and warps the tune into a sauntering mass of awesome, complete with a new, livelier vocal cadence. Once Dance Yrself Clean slips back into its original motif and fades out, the often misunderstood Drunk Girls steps up to the plate and delivers what has, alas, already become a Frat-boy anthem in spite of the fact that the song is making fun of just such a lifestyle. Drunk Girls is a fun track; it is good but not great, and is completely understandable as a party track or guilty pleasure.

The album's center piece is All I Want, a six minute and forty three second Eno-era Bowie inspired post-punk masterpiece that is the song of the year as of its release. All I Want is a track that shows off the best facets of Murphy's chameleon-esque songwriting abilities: no one does romantic melancholy in an electronic setting the way this man does, and his ability to craft remarkable gems of longing that you want to dance to is unmatched. All I Want IS the spiritual successor to the outstanding All My Friends, and is as enjoyable if not (possibly) more. The album's influences are then fast forwarded a decade on the new-wave/kraut-rock, falsetto-teased love song I Can Change, another truly great tune that will, no doubt, be the soundtrack for many a sweaty summer night between you and your companion.

This is Happening has it all; there are quintessential house-with-a-disco-tint club jams (You Wanted A Hit), as well as ass-shaking, deliriously-rambling thumpers with biting and oh-so-savvy wit (Pow Pow)- check out this verse: "On this occasion, there are a couple of things that we know that we learned from fact magazine, One, the king wears a king hat and lives in a king house, Two, your time will come, but tonight is our night, so you should give us all of your drugs, Three, 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"- in a word, awesome.

James Murphy's limitless knowledge of production, music history, and song writing is unmatched by his peers, and really serves him well as a tastemaker, and us as mortals. Listening to an LCD Soundsystem record is akin to an act of discovery on every spin. You owe it yourself, and to your nights, to check this album out immediately... Besides, it's cool, and we know how obsessed you all are with cool.