_____“Nintendo 64, I played "Goldeneye". Bought the whole system just to play "Goldeneye"”. I wasn’t all that into LCD Soundsystem until I read this quote from James Murphy, the man behind it all. The height of my musical experience of them was Daft Punk Is Playing At My House being played at people’s houses. Obviously I regularly hear about North American Scum on the radio, but that whole Tiger Woods saga has dragged on for far too long at this stage.
___But the point is, that I grossly, grossly misjudged James Murphy, and consequently LCD Soundsystem. Everybody and anybody who can still remember the ins and outs of classic levels such as Facility, Bunker, Frigate, Bunker II, and Cradle, in all their 64-bit beauty, is worth paying attention to. So I did. And, I suppose I liked it. Sound Of Silver didn’t give me quite the level of unimaginable pleasure as described by basically every single music review I read, but that’s not to say I’m not kicking myself for not giving it a chance sooner. Their self-titled debut sparked similar regret-inspired acts of self-harm.
___So it was just my luck when, just as I start to get into them, James Murphy announces that this, their third album, would be their last. Although, he did promise that LCD Soundsystem would be going anything but quietly.
_____Obviously following such dramatic news, emotional LCD fans across the globe simply couldn’t wait for This Is Happening. It’s May 17th release just couldn’t come quick enough. So, since that date wasn’t working out, they decided they’d have it now. As always, the internet was more than happy to oblige.
___Oddly enough I haven’t heard any reaction to it so far. At first, I couldn’t figure why this was so, but then after each consecutive listen to the album, it became clearer and clearer. You wouldn’t go telling all your friends if you discovered that a chocolate cake and a blonde bombshell were placed in a hidden room every Monday at midday now would you? No, because that would mean sharing, and nobody likes sharing.
___So I suppose it’s understandable that nobody has been shouting from the rooftops about This Is Happening. Because it isn’t anything like chocolate cake and a blonde bombshell. It’s like chocolate cake, a blonde bombshell, and what I think may be LCD Soundsystem’s best album yet.
_____They haven’t changed all that much in terms of the music, it’s still instantly recognisable as that fantastic LCD sound, but there’s a certain special feel to this album that its predecessors lacked. For example, the opening track, the flawless Dance Yrself Clean, could not set the tone for this album more perfectly. Its laidback three minute intro saying that they’ve taken their time with this record, the other six minutes screaming that it’s resulted in some of their best stuff to date.
___The album is has been stuffed with all sorts of wonderful, wonderful tracks. The Sound Of Silver-esque One Touch will entrance you; the fiercely funky Pow Pow will hypnotise you; and You Wanted A Hit will drug you, take you home, and have its sick and beautiful way with you every time you hear it. All these stand out for me as songs that would waltz into any LCD Soundsystem Top 10, but I can’t say I have any complaints with Murphy’s choice for the debut single. Because if I know anything to be true, it’s that when I’m standing in pit for the last band of my Leeds weekend and this song draws to a close, I will be higher than any amount of bath salts could ever take me.
_____The more I think about it, the more sure I am that I prefer this to their two previous releases, but it’s not without the odd questionable moment. Well, two to be exact. When placed in an album of such a standard as This Is Happening, personally, Somebody’s Calling Me doesn’t quite cut it. And, although still a quality track, All I Wanted just isn’t as good as the non-existent Strokes’ song it sounds so ridiculously similar to.
___However, that’s just about all the bad I have to say about this album, and it’s not really that bad. Just that one track doesn’t rock my world quite as hard as the rest of the album, and that another is slightly disappointing purely because when it comes on, I think This Is It has come on, and one is obviously going to be sad upon realising that This Is [Sadly, Not] It. Once one gets over this, however, it’s actually a brilliant song.
_____LCD Soundsystem have announced a string of European festival dates for this summer, and I know that this has more than a few of you excited. Which is why I’m delighted to say that, for me, This Is Happening is a stunning success. While Drunk Girls seems to be one tickling most people’s taste buds at the moment, I’m going to sign off with my unquestionable favourite off the album. While James and company may be leaving us forever, this track will never die. For me personally, anyways.
A2
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