Musings

Three years on from the phenomenal critical success of Sound of Silver, James Murphy, returns with what is in his own words, may be the final album under the LCD Soundsystem moniker.

The album begins with the nine minute slow-burner, Dance Yrself Clean, all low key vocals and minimal synths, until a third of the way in when everything is let loose. The synths become crunching and heavy; the vocals a wail, and of course there’s cowbell.

Murphy has always been willing to reference the bands and artists that have influenced his career. Whether it’s reeling off his record collection in his first single Losing My Edge, or using a photo of it as the cover art, as he did with Introns. Again he makes no disguise of the influences on show throughout This is Happening. Drunk Girls, the album’s only obvious single, is three and a half minutes of no nonsense dance-punk, and bares more than a resemblance to the Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat. The guitar hook from the David Bowie classic “Heroes” is replicated in All I Want, and it takes more than a double take to realise it’s not Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing you’re listening to, when in fact it is Somebody’s Calling Me; again a nod to David Bowie and Brian Eno’s Berlin period.

There is enough recognition of artists past, and even his own previous work – the building layered repetition, and call and response chants throughout One Touch, is reminiscent of Sound of Silver’s Us v Them – to suggest that the album is a summary of the LCD Soundsystem project.

If This is Happening does turn out to be the final LCD Soundsystem release, then Home is a more than worthy way to end it with. The closing lines of “If you’re afraid of what you need/Look around you, you’re surrounded/It won’t get any better” is perhaps a self-realisation, the LCD Soundsystem vehicle has been taken as far as it can go. It’s hit the peak so burn out rather than fade away. 

9.2