album of the week: 6.1

LCD Soundsystem

This is Happening

DFA (2010)

why you'll love it - fun but not sophomoric

why you'll hate it - very long songs, repetitive

If vampire logic has taught me anything, when you kill the lead vampire the entire race will revert back to humanity. This makes me wonder what NYC hipsters will do if this really is the last LCD Soundsystem album. I've always seen James Murphy as Hipster Prime, no matter how unwilling he plays himself off to be. That's in a way the joy of LCD Soundsystem, who has since the very first single been placing this whole ridiculous indie-hipster culture in a house of mirrors. Not sparing himself from this depreciation, LCD songs can become so convoluted with contradictions; "shut up and dance" usually becomes the most acceptable response.

This is Happening may probably be the best LCD Soundstsyem album, but possibly the least relevant because the last two albums have been enough said. They've already gone down the very ironic and sincere routes. Now all that is left to do is combine them and try to sift out learned mistakes. Murphy retains the songwriting skills that made Sound of Silver (2007) so great. His perspective of an overweight deshieviled man in his 40's trying to survive alongside a youth run culture works even better when handled honestly, which is what made Sound of Silver so memorable.

A lot of the versatility and irony of the first album creeps its way into this one too. I'm not sure how to look at the song "You Wanted A Hit". It's so overt and unnecessary, Murphy and co. must be playing some Devo-esque "are we corporate or not?" prank on the listener. Especially when earlier in the album, there is "Drunk Girls" - the most painfully obvious "we wrote this song for the radio" single I've ever heard. At least the video for "Drunk Girls" is a riot.

Those are the only low points of this album, and they are more head-scratchers than they are bummers. The rest is total dance party. Murphy deliveries many of his lines throughout the album in a rambling spoken word. He's either going of on high speed rants like Chris Leo, or trailing off into non-sequitors like Jonathan Richman. "Pow Pow" is the best example of this. Some of the best synthesized beats they've ever done crop up here as well. "Dance Yrself Clean" is quickly becoming my favorite LCD song. "I Can Change" reminds me of Solvent in the best way. "Home" to me is a fine curtain call if this actually is to be the last LCD album.

Instead of being "so shallow it's fun", LCD Soundsystem has been "so opinionated and divisive it's fun". The fact that so many people waste their time on the internet arguing about how he ripped off this from The Killing Joke, or that from Velvet Underground; or just plain having at go at the inconsequential culture itself Murphy is wrapped in amuses me so much. It makes me like LCD Soundsytem even more. This is Happening is no Sound of Silver in terms of achievement, but is absolutely necessary if you are looking to check them out.