LCD Soundsystem
This Is Happening
(DFA Records)
This is really a simple album. The crux of This is Happening is not in its appealing amalgamation of organic and synthetic instrumentation, it’s not the intelligent blend of post-punk, pop and electronica that you've come to expect from James Murphy, and it’s not about being at the zenith of musical fashion. I mean, sure, it is at once all of these things, but the elemental core of this album seems to be a comparatively simpler one. When you break it all down, This is Happening is just really, purely, goddamn - almost impossibly - fun. It’s the sound of people having fun whilst making music, and it’s infectiously fun to listen to – pretty much the whole thing from start to finish just encapsulates joy. Now, I’ll be the first to agree, that sentence might be a little too much sunshine and butterflies, and probably makes me sound like I’m about to go and put a rainbow in a jar, but the vibrancy and energy of this record is undeniable: This is Happening should really be This is Happiness.
Across its (almost) entirety,This is Happening maintains a very particular musical sensibility, and a very-fucking-charismatic and very omnipresent off-the-wall kind of juvenility; inscribed throughout via the capricious percussive clicks of a wood block ('Home'), the tinkering of a glockenspiel ('You Wanted A Hit'), the erratic bursts of shimmering synthesizers ('Dance Yrself Clean'), and in Murphy’s quaintly self-aware lyrical and vocal efforts ('Pow Pow'). There’s a palpable level of impish musical playfulness on offer here, and it’s perhaps this hedonistic mantra of ‘doing whatever sounds cool’ that makes the album both flippantly bouncy and intelligently weighty. Instantly modern and yet brimming with nostalgic fondness.
Opening, uh, opus ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ typifies the album. Starting out in affable simplicity, with cowbells and tribal drums percussively bouncing around minimalistic melodic pulses, Murphy’s endearing lilts breeze in and out, ("you’re talking like a jerk / except you are an actual jerk"), until the track erupts in a flurry of live drums and synthesizers. ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ accelerates towards its slow burning pinnacle, and simultaneously highlights the overarching nature of This is Happening as a whole; an amalgam of energy and emotion, of multiple musical influences, and of a myriad of sonic moods and textures – but dance-y, always dance-y and undeniably energetic.
The album’s first release, ‘Drunk Girls’, I found a little confusing, as it provides a comparative point of difference to the rest of the record. But I guess it is the one track from This is Happening that speaks most to LCD Soundsystems’ "dance-punk" catalogue, and to their established stylistic conventions. For me though, ‘All I Want’ is pure perfection in terms of single material – a dreamy stew of warm harmonies, poppy effervescence, lyrics about a girl - or something - and the sort of unassuming, restrained charisma (both musical and general) that both James Murphy and his band exude – that is, until it becomes slightly discordant in the last minute or so, thanks to some overly excitable keys work - the blissful, poppy resonance of the track is fractured. But again, as with ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, the apparent philosophy of This is Happening is evinced: stylistic parameters and generic conventions are obliterated and departed from, but the musical picture is always painted in hues of vibrancy, energy and an indomitable dance floor appeal.
If, as both Murphy and LCD Soundsystem have suggested, This is Happening forms the epitaph of the band, then surely the funeral will be a celebratory affair rather than a mournful one. For, not only will this album resonate as an outstanding legacy of a quality band, but I just cannot see how any sentient being in this galaxy could feel sadness with this on as background music. Smile!
Elliott Grigg