Review Summary: No, it's not.
As to how James Murphy and his New York renaissance project have received all sorts of hype and critical acclaim in the past ten or so years has remained a mystery to me. Under danceable grooves and eclectic electronic instruments was the habit for the coolest of the un-cool to include unwarranted song extensions, lyrics so described as ”
smart, cheeky, and impressionable,” but have proven to be anything but, and melodies that are certainly sing-able, sure, I guess, but nothing I’d ever recall to mind while driving down the road. For his perseverance and what many interpret to be innovation, James Murphy has been given the title of “
accidental impresario,” largely responsible for believing – and subsequently putting into practice – “
that rock and disco could be reacquainted and could make a city move.” While bands such as The Strokes and Interpol took up the task of reviving good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll in New York in the beginnings of the last decade, Murphy has been bringing the party back to the swingin’, dance-groove night clubs of the scene.
So this year gives us what Murphy has deemed the final LP, an effort that is “
definitely better than the other two.” As I am a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to LCD Soundsystem, this was very pleasant news for me, as maybe I would finally understand what all the fuss was about if
This Is Happening truly delivered. For the fans and critics that embraced the project’s self-titled and
Sound Of Silver albums, though, this must have been a prophecy of Heaven-on-Earth, practically the album of the year even before its release. Well, it’s finally here, and I regret to say that I’m still a little bit out of the loop when it comes to truly appreciating this project’s music. Old problems return: lazy tracks - at times, even awful - pop up here and there, and Murphy is still a lyricist that I cannot, for the life of me, appreciate: “
Yeah, you wanted the time / But maybe I can’t do the time / Oh we both know that’s an awful line.” Need I say more?
The first half of
This Is Happening is definitely the stronger of the two. “Dance Yrself Clean” enters us in with a varied, slow-pace percussion kit, as synth pads puff behind Murphy’s talk-to-the-hand delivery. Things pick up halfway in when a more urgent beat takes the lead, with Murphy putting on his best Bowie impression. The varied number warrants its nine-minute track length by staying interesting, intensely melodic, and groovy. Unfortunately as
This Is Happening runs its course, this characteristic never really returns again to show up in the other songs. With slight differences aside, many of the tracks run straight through their often seven-to-nine minute lengths with only what is presented within the first minute (“One Touch,” “Pow Pow,” and “Somebody’s Calling Me”). For this reason, those that had trouble getting through LCD Soundsystem’s last albums will have the same problem here. At this point, it almost seems like Murphy was better off in his years of just making one-off singles.
Though I’m certainly disillusioned with James Murphy’s past LCD Soundsystem albums, I will say that there wasn’t exactly a terrible track on the 2005 and 2007 critic-gold mines. On
This Is Happening, however, I will go ahead and deem that “Drunk Girls” and “Pow Pow” are near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to what 2010 has offered us so far. It’s really unfortunate, too, as “Drunk Girls” hits you in the face with abysmal lyrics – “
Drunk Girls wait an hour to pee” and “
Drunk boys keep in pace with the pedophiles” - and a cyclical Beach Boys-esque riff – all without the cuteness – right after the highs of the opener and dirties an otherwise pretty strong first half of the album. It’s not until the end of “All I Want,” a track that shows Murphy’s possible future career in indie rock or brit-pop and contains a healthy dose of Interpol-Paul Banks pie, that things really go downhill; in fact, Murphy almost seems to ironically predict it on this very fourth cut: “
From now on, I’m someone different / Cause it’s no fun to be predicting.”
“I Can Change” has Murphy trying to be Thom Yorke, if that British artist actually enjoyed the spotlight, and is followed by the drudgery of “You Wanted A Hit,” the aforementioned embarrassment of “Pow Pow,” and "Somebody’s Calling Me”. “Home” ends us off pleasantly enough, however, recalling the livelier, and conversely more interesting, bits of the first half of
This Is Happening. Cycling keyboards and tea-cup percussion tools build behind Murphy and his pleading lyrics for a certain other to move on with his or her life; as Murphy increases with fervor, so do the instruments, refusing to stagnate like the musical accessories of the last few tracks did. It’s such a closer that shines light on all of the good and the bad of
This Is Happening, as well as showing the strength of Murphy, and why he probably shouldn’t pursue a career in the creation of down-tempo. Murphy is at his best on this album - and those that came before it, for that matter - when he refuses to follow the same pattern for an excess of five minutes and actually pens some thoughtful lyrics to dance along with his grooves. After having listened to this, I think it’s a shame that
This Is Happening is the last LCD Soundsystem album. I don't think I'll ever understand what was so great about what was happening in the first place.
