This Is Happening

Another time lap from LCD Soundsystem

The dance project LCD Soundsystem is a brainchild of one of the most productive producing tandems of James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, DFA. The release of LCD Soundsystem’s eponymous debut album in 2005 was taken by the critics quite warmly but that welcome can be hardly compared to the sensation made by the 2007’s record Sound Of Silver. Then both the audience and the journalists agreed that the authors had created a real masterpiece: all the imaginable contradictions combined on it in a harmonious way. It goes without saying that all the fans whose number is large enough have been anticipating a continuation from LCD Soundsystem. Well, they had to wait for three years, and as it is clear now, the time has not been just wasted. The new creation is another time lap, a greeting from the future causing nostalgia. An artful layering of the most unexpected sound discoveries, contagious samples, sparkling tunes and bewitching vocal parts comprise only a part of all the merits This Is Happening can boast.

The music itself is put into the front ground on This Is Happening

It is a common opinion that an artist or a band makes various changes from one album to another both in the form and the content but of course some confidently stick to one and the same formula and LCD Soundsystem is exactly the case. 9 lengthy compositions comprised the previous record and we find just the same on This Is Happening. Yet there is one significant difference between these two albums – if Sound Of Silver was a source of wisdom in the lyrics, then the music itself is put into the front ground on the new work, though not without an exception here as well. The album opener Dance Yrself Clean surely carries an interesting message but even without listening to the words one can pleasingly rock one’s hand along with the quality beat and enjoy Murphy’s vocals. The first single off the album, Drunk Girls, definitely one of the highlights, is the place where pop rock and dance music meet, whereas One Touch is a more electronic track with an experimental flavor obtained by the layering of male and female vocal samples of various moods. The song All I Want could well be an example of classic indie-rock if it were not for overly distorted instruments and the nervous audio mess at the end. A splendid, vivid electronic track I Can Change will certainly become a hit, and the song with exactly such title, You Wanted A Hit, proves to be the one on which the lyrics do matter a lot – Murphy claims that making hits is not what they do, which is why the song is worthy of your attention. The final composition Home, another example of many-faceted dance-rock ironically sums up all the hot parties in the world.

To think it over or to dance?

As producers James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy clearly understand the audience’s demand: some are eager to dance, the others have thirst for intellectual music, the third do not care what to listen to unless it is silence, the fourth prefer only certain directions. The authors wonderfully manage to unite most varied genres in their works. Of course it does not mean that LCD Soundsystem make a chaotic mixture of all styles for the musicians’ own prevailing tastes are actually traced well. Nevertheless they successfully reach their goal to embrace the unembraceable. Listening to This Is Happening one has some ambiguous sensation: you feel as if you were on board of a intergalactic liner listening to the last century’s late 90s classics. You want to think over the smart lyrics, relax and at the same time your body keenly reacts to the dance rhythmic. Some suspect that This Is Happening is the last work of LCD Soundsystem, no matter what is going to happen, you should listen to it more than once to capture all its curious nuances and consider all the multiple music facets.