‘Walking up to me expecting, walking up to me expecting words, happens all the time.’
With this, James Murphy kicks off his new album This Is Happening. Over the last couple releases, LCD Soundsystem has risen from relative obscurity to a major band in independent music. Expectation for Murphy’s next release have kept pace. From the man who began his rise with “Losing My Edge,” a song about attempting (and failing) to maintain hipster cred, these opening words shows how very different James Murphy’s world looks today. What kind of album does he make with his status at unflagging cool, dare I say star? Well, it’s still cocky, the disco beats are still there, and if you ignore a few missteps in the direction of overly self-indulgent it’s a very good album. Although it’s not as consistently mind-blowing as Sound of Silver, the highs are just as high. The lows, though at times painfully long, are easily skipped and forgotten among the other great tracks.
Right off the bat, Murphy demonstrates his mastery of the slow build with his excellent opener “Dance Yrself Clean,” which clocks in at over 9 minutes. This continues throughout the album. Most of the songs are over the 6-minute mark and several are in the 8- to 9-minute range. Usually, this is to great effect, but it also contributes to the big dud of the album, “One Touch,” a robotic attempt at extended disco Daft Punk, complete with screechy female vocals. The song seems like it could crescendo rewardingly in the chorus but then only gives you six quiet notes from a xylophone as a refrain. The song is long, falling flat for a grand total of 7:47.
Fortunately “One Touch” is cupped on either side by the best 4 songs on the album: “Dance Yrself Clean,” “Drunk Girls,” “All I Want,” and “I Can Change.” These four songs are so filled with incredible goodness that if you ignore “One Touch” they make up arguably the strongest string of songs in LCD’s career (counter-argument: “North American Scum,” “Someone Great,” “All My Friends,” and “Us vs Them”). “Dance Yrself Clean” begins with a pattering beat, vocal harmonies, and James speak-singing to us before dropping a heavy synthesizer that sounds like it was taken (gracefully) from The Knife’s “We Share Our Mother’s Health.” “Drunk Girls” seems like a stripped down anthem suited for a frat party before the swooning, yearning, chorus comes in: ‘oh Oh OOOH, I believe in waking up together.’
“All I Want” deserves it’s own paragraph. Taking the sliding guitars straight from Bowie’s “Heroes,” this, James’ opus on steady love and ultimately heartbreak, is among if not the best song of his career. Like “All My Friends,” Murphy puts aside the cockiness and uses repetition and warm instrumentation to create a safe space where he can talk about what he loves most and his fear of losing it. “I’ve never needed anyone for so long,” Murphy sings in the first verse, recalling stability and lengthy relationships before undercutting it with “all I want is your pity.” In the second verse, the girl one day never comes home: so “you pack your backs and leave.” The inevitability of loss. Murphy wants your pity for that inevitable eventuality. Musically, as the song progresses, fuzzy synths break up the repeated guitars in increasingly wild patterns. By the end of the song, the erratic squealing keys threaten to pull the track apart with only the guitar line holding the composition together, Murphy wailing “Take me home. Take me home.” The obvious parallel between the musical progression of the song and the lyrical focus (the stability of a relationship in the face of life’s inevitable craziness) just adds to the songs charm.
The second half of the album returns to the stylistic studies of the opener. Often, these songs are broken into sections with a long intro (if this were classical music, several movements). “You Wanted a Hit,” addresses the growing pressures of the record industry with his usual cockiness. “You wanted a hit, but maybe we don’t do hits… You wanted a hit. Well, this is how we do hits.” While most of these tracks lack the immediacy of the first half of the album, the closer “Home” is a sweet farewell with it’s grooving bass line and chanting vocals. “Home” may in fact be the LCD closer, as This is Happening is rumored to be their last album.
As a whole, This is Happening is often too slow to be considered a dance album, more appropriate for the car than a party. We get to see Murphy indulge and delve deeply into his exhaustive knowledge of disco, punk, and electronica to make music intended for the pleasure of his own ears as much as his audience. While at times quirky and esoteric, it’s ultimately very rewarding. Give the album multiple listens. Much of the pleasure lies in the details, little riffs and muttered lyrics, and if that still doesn’t do it for you, just put “All I Want” on repeat and rock out or mood out to one of the most perfect compositions of a very accomplished trio of albums from LCD Soundsystem.
-drew straus
