Golden-voiced Murphy ... doesn't try for any cheap Bowie-baritone vocal mimicry, and his lyrics and musicianship have greater depth and polish. The best inspiration should come with improvements, and Murphy's are vast.
Perhaps the rumor that this is his last LCD album is behind that newfound urgency. If true, it’s a shame, as the band’s Krautrock/Talking Heads-funk fusion has never sounded livelier.
Wearing his love for Bowie on his sleeve for all to see serves him well - this album is the most lyrically focused LCD outing and the most uncompromising, with most songs breaking the six minute mark and a few breaking nine. It’s not just a great dance album; it’s a great pop album.
Murphy and his crew are fully committed to this album. There’s a remarkable sustained energy to this collection; its electronic textures thrum and shimmy, and wall after sonic wall is built up and torn down with impeccable precision.
Even considering his bold-name touchstones for This Is Happening, it would be shortsighted to cry rip-off; Murphy is remaking essential 70s art-rock in his own hyper-modern, self-aware image.
This Is Happening suffers no shortage of really great songs. Each track is a well-executed study in the finer points of the long form, each thumping and building, wavering and shifting in the haze of its own self-contained ecosystem.
Not only has the band wrapped up the themes of the record with impeachable, spotless playing and production, but the man at the center of it all hasn’t lost his penchant for writing quality tunes either, as nearly anything you blind-spot off This Is Happening will prove.
As farewells go, this is proper fond. Sound of gold!
This is Happening doesn't succeed as mere gold nugget pastiche though. Murphy embeds these references into the kind of physical trap-jams on which he and the DFA brand have always thrived.
Somehow Murphy not only lives up to this self-imposed pressure, he revels in it. Each dip and twirl and change of pace clears the way for something even more exciting. It's roller coaster music.
While This is Happening isn’t as wall-to-wall brilliant as Sound of Silver, if it is indeed his last record with this project, he’s leaving his legacy in just as good of shape as Jay-Z left his with The Black Album before his (unfortunately temporary) retirement.
This Is Happening is a record that knows -- made by a band that knows -- that disco is better when it's just not so satisfied with itself.
Perhaps with Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem has set the bar too high for itself. But with the many standouts on the album and the bliss they provide on their own, it’s not too hard to think that Murphy could have topped himself once again with a little less jamming and ranting.
Sure LCD Soundsystem songs are fun, but they also make you question why they are fun, whether they are actually fun, what fun means, whether we can ever answer these questions, and whether when all is done, are you happy with what you’re doing. It’s meta-party music.
What keeps Murphy from being an insufferable know-it-all is how he folds deeper emotions into his references.
On This Is Happening, Murphy, now 40, remains a hipster, often expressing his emotions through quips, asides and allusions ... But Happening also includes Murphy's most earnest, lovelorn songs.
With This Is Happening, Murphy remains far ahead of pretenders trying to steal his thunder.
Backed by colorful electronic textures, infectious basslines and futuristic rock melodies, the singer/ producer conveys the hard truths of life over nine tracks.
This Is Happening doesn’t quite reach the monumental heights of Sound of Silver, but it serves as an almost-there companion and further proof that LCD Soundsystem is one of the most exciting and interesting bands around in the 2000s.
You could argue that This Is Happening lacks its predecessor's startling sense of mapping out new territories, but if it confines itself to doing what LCD Soundsystem do, it does it all incredibly well.
Such familiarity doesn’t breed contempt when the results are as punchy, punky, sardonic and smart as this.
These fine-detail improvements are what make This Is Happening LCD’s best work to date, though mumblings about how Murphy might be repeating himself a bit remain valid.
This Is Happening is a great record and one of the best of the year so far. Only by the heights which Murphy can reach could it possibly be found wanting. If this is LCD’s final album, he’ll have a lot to be proud of.
Partly because it doesn’t break new ground for the band, This is Happening initially sounds a little drab. As with their previous records, there is a sternness and detachment in how it approaches dance rhythms.
If Sound of Silver was the sound of someone reaching far enough to make something just plain great, then This is Happening is the sound of a man with great taste who really understands music, making dumb body music with hidden depths if anyone cares to investigate.
Murphy has already hinted that this might be LCD Soundsystem's final bulletin. On this evidence he wasn't teasing and the glum reality is that This Is Happening isn't happening enough.
This Is Happening is still a fine – if marginally flawed – end to a largely magnificent trilogy.
Okay man, this album is really cool. Please stop rerouting the pipes in my bathroom though. It was funny at first but now it's starting to get really annoying. You're running up water bill. you know I can't afford that. Please stop i'm almost out of a home because of you.
1 | Dance Yrself Clean 8:56 | 97 |
2 | Drunk Girls 3:42 | 89 |
3 | One Touch 7:45 | 91 |
4 | All I Want 6:41 | 93 |
5 | I Can Change 5:55 | 95 |
6 | You Wanted a Hit 9:06 | 93 |
7 | Pow Pow 8:23 | 89 |
8 | Somebody's Calling Me 6:53 | 78 |
9 | Home 7:51 | 96 |
#1 | / | No Ripcord |
#1 | / | Paste |
#1 | / | Rhapsody SoundBoard |
#1 | / | The Needle Drop |
#1 | / | Treble |
#2 | / | NOW Magazine |
#2 | / | Pitchfork |
#3 | / | Time |
#4 | / | A.V. Club |
#4 | / | NME |