LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

So many bands go on for too long; their artistic intent withers somewhere along the third album and the rest of their career is filled with uninspired, odd-yearly rehashes of that hit album. Well at least that’s how I am consoling myself that This Is Happening, the follow-up to the decade-topping Sound of Silver, is LCD Soundsystem’s final record. Thankfully, James Murphy doesn’t disappoint easily. Album opener ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ is one of those songs that you wish you could listen to again for the first time. It creeps up on you with its slow repeating bass and Murphy’s quiet vocals punctuated by occasional ‘ahhs’. Then suddenly out of nowhere a thundering wave of synths drop and everything picks-up, like Murphy had been knowingly teasing you the whole time.

Single ‘Drunk Girls’ sounds as uncomfortably out of place as ‘North American Scum’ did in Sound of Silver, and its ‘Drunk girls, Drunk girls, Drunk boys, Drunk boys’ refrain almost feels irritating, redeemed only by Murphy’s sharp observations. Following ‘Drunk Girls’, in what I hope is a totally intended joke song title sequencing, is ‘One Touch’, where Murphy goes all robo-voiced with bleeps accompanying his strongly enunciated vocals leaving the song feeling somewhat empty. ‘You Wanted a Hit’ is LCD Soundsystem at its most recognisable: effortlessly cool vocals defiantly announcing ‘we won’t be your babies anymore’ matched by swirling synths and funky guitar strumming. It continues over to ‘Pow Pow’ which sounds in parts like an improvised rant, only punctuated by the repeated ‘pow pows’ with its backing bongo drum beats and the occasional shimmering bells.

About mid-record Murphy reaches his emotional high with ‘All I Want’ and ‘I Can Change’. In the latter, Murphy realises the need for dependable human connection and at the end erupts into a repeated cry of ‘take me hooooomeee’ that you can imagine him howling outside someone’s door. But maybe it was a bit too intense; later he’s pleading ‘I Can Change’ while begging for things to ‘never change, never change, never change’. Despite having some great lines like the self-deprecating ‘love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry, and this is coming from me’, neither really have the same kind of poignancy as ‘Someone Great’ or ‘All My Friends’ did. Although you’ll try convincing yourself otherwise, the feeling of inferiority to Sound of Silver hangs over repeated listens.

That said, This Is Happening is undeniably a brilliant record, so much so that I’m tempted to close with imploring Murphy to not leave us at his peak. But if anything this album left me with the niggling feeling that it simply isn’t as spectacular as Sound of Silver and that maybe it might be a good thing for Murphy to leave us before he ‘loses his edge’.

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