On the 18th of May, This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem turned 15 years old. The landmark album has quickly cemented itself as a modern classic, and it’s my personal pick for the greatest record of all time.
By 2010, LCD Soundsystem had already cemented themselves as one of the most forward-thinking, intelligent, and worthwhile bands of the indie era, with 2007’s Sound Of Silver being a classic in its own right. Its balance of epic ballads “All My Friends, New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” and fun indietronica “North American Scum”, “Get Innocuous!” made it one of the freshest and most compelling albums of the year. Had most bands made Sound Of Silver, it would have easily been their magnum opus. But LCD Soundsystem is not like most bands.
On This Is Happening, LCD Soundsystem streamlines and compresses their sound into its densest, most immediate form. The album is much more single-minded than its predecessor; gone are the political undertones “North American Scum”, “New York I Love You”, gone are the huge wordless electronic jam sessions “Sound Of Silver”, and gone are the Krautrock influences “Time To Get Away”. Instead, James Murphy focuses the band on a few major themes- falling in and out of love “I Can Change”, “All I Want”, finding escapism through music, “Dance Yrself Clean”, “Drunk Girls”, and growing older/facing major life change (Home, You Wanted A Hit). The groovy themeless tracklist fillers (not a pejorative) that made up the majority of SOS’s runtime are gone now- only acid house alien banger One Touch and stream-of-consciousness Talking Heads-esque ramble Pow Pow really fit. The rest are all career highlights in their own right, and they all thematically reinforce one another.
The album begins with “Dance Yrself Clean”, not only probably the best song on the album but in competition for one of the best songs ever made. It’s a brilliant opening- we’re immediately introduced to the band’s emotionally detached, electronic sound, its long song structures, and James Murphy’s sardonic lyricism (Talking like a jerk/ except you are an actual jerk/ and living proof/ that sometimes friends are mean). The beat drop around halfway through is as ecstatic as music can possibly get.
Following this gargantuan feat is “Drunk Girls”, a parody of the sort of mindless party-punk that had become very popular around the late 2000s-early 2010s. The Dare would later use this song as the basis for his career, without seemingly getting the joke. The song itself provides us with maybe my favorite line on the whole album: Drunk girls know that love is an astronaut, it comes back but it’s never the same. It’s also maybe the only moment on the album content with being pure rock, relatively unconcerned with the bleeps and bloops of the rest of the album. After eight minutes of the hypnotically strange “One Touch”, we return to earth with the track “All I Want”. Here, Murphy drops the sardonic wit and sarcasm of the previous few songs, repurposing the guitar line from David Bowie’s heroes into one of the most heartfelt and quietly bittersweet breakup songs I’ve ever heard. The guitar line itself sounds much more overwhelming than on the original, informed by 20 years of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth that didn’t exist in 1977.
On “I Can Change”, the band provides us with one of the most straightforward and melodic examples of their songwriting, writing what could be a New Order or Tears For Fears song. Not to say that the band has lost their sense of personality- one of the best aspects of LCD Soundsystem has always been being able to turn their influences into something new, unique, and better than the sum of its parts. Murphy’s lyrics maintain a witty edge (Love’s an open book to a verse of your bad poetry… and this coming from me), but over all, the song is a deeply sincere and sentimental plea, the most straightforward love song in their entire discography, with Murphy caterwauling over and over that he can change, if that’s what he needs to do.
“You Wanted A Hit” is a deeply bitter and sarcastic lament of working with a record label that’s never happy with the results, but it’s also the best example of the album’s sound, so distant yet so felt. It’s something I’ve never heard replicated anywhere else- it sounds so minimal yet so full, so cold and yet so warm.
“Pow Pow” sees James Murphy doing his best David Byrne impression and hitting it out of the park. It’s by no means a highlight, but it’s still a fantastic song, with a quietly addictive hook. Similar feelings for “Somebody’s Calling Me”, with its blaring siren synth and aimless piano. At first an obvious pick for worst song on the album, it’s grown on me a lot- it’s a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the album.
Finally, the album ends on the monumental Home, one of the best songs ever penned. In many ways a bookend, on Home we hear one of the most effective and emotionally resonant songs about nostalgia, hope, and worry ever penned. A perfect ending to a perfect album.
In conclusion, this album represents one of the most cohesive, consistent, and rewarding artistic statements in modern musical history, and for that reason I consider it my favorite. I am certain that in 15 years, I will still be listening to this music.
