This Is Happening

LCD Soundsystem | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (August 3, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: DFA Records
• ASIN: B003UI50CW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,864 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2010 release, the third album proper from James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem, follows 2007's warmly received 'Sounds Of Silver'. Musically inspired by late 1970's David Bowie, This Is Happening also has artwork that directly references Bowie's classic 1979 album Lodger. The record retains Murphy's idiosyncratic sense of humour and includes the single 'Drunk Girls'. EMI. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good artists emulate..., May 19, 2010

By 

Nails in My Head - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Is Happening (Audio CD)

.. but great artists steal, or so they say.

And LCD are certainly mining the past on their third effort, the deliberately dense "This is Happening." James Murphy, the frontman and only solid emelent of an otherwise revolving lineup, has never been shy about proclaiming his influences and touting his musical heroes, but previous lp's always seemed more a mis-mash of otherwise incoherent styles, rather than the clear homages that mark this, the newest LCD album.

Not that I'm complaining; far from it. But let there be a warning to those who don't find late 70's Bowie or Iggy to their taste: a full three songs on the sprawling nine track lp are, beyond a reasonable doubt, directly inspired by Bowie & Co.

Drunk Girls, for example, copies "Lodger's" Boys Keep Swinging, while Somebody's Calling Me borrows nearly note for note the backing blips and piano of "The Idiot's" Nightclubbing. All I Want, too, reaches back to Bowie's "Heroes" for its Eno-itized riffing and vocal delivery.

The video for All My Friends clued us all in that Bowie's Berlin Tryptich served as a muse for Murphy and his band, but never before has it been more clear that the Bowie/Iggy partnership circa '76-'79 really ground LCD in the canon of Rock 'n' Roll rather than more modern dance music.

Which isn't to say the dance/electro that marked the beginning of LCD's career isn't still there. It's just much more subtle and nuanced when it is. Songs like One Hit and Dance Yrself Clean both feature the requisite kickdrums and basslines, but the melodies and lyrics are much more at the forefront. The days of Daft Punk is Playing at My House are over. If LCD's going to make a dance song now, they earn it with emotional impact and complex dynamic shifts.

So yes, LCD Soundsystem has matured. The humorous breaks don't dominate the record this time around, they just pepper delicate and honest confessional pieces. Think Someone Great and All My Friends for most of the record. Even the on-its-surface crass Drunk Girls proclaims during its bridge, "I believe in waking up together," a romantic assertion if ever I heard one.

So Murphy's grown up, in a nutshell. And if growing up lyrically means trading in the dirty indietronic rave-ups for '70s alt-rock inspired anthems, more power to him.

Just beware: most songs break the six minute mark.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I keep forgetting it's Bowie, August 26, 2010

By 

J. B. Bell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: This Is Happening (Audio CD)

Going through my first listen now. Was dubious about buying this one due to the writings of the musical literates who listed all the influences that this album draws from and claimed it was a bad thing. There's nothing LCD Soundsystem has produced in the past that I didn't appreciate and enjoy. This album is no different.

Rock and roll is just cleaned up blues. Everything's been done and nothing's original. Shakespeare stole, so did Dylan, so did the Stones and the Beatles, as does Scorsese, Tarantino, and even (gasp) David Bowie.

The point is to make the thing you're doing so fun and awesome that no one will have time to complain.

This album is flat out beautiful. Very different mood than the prior releases. Murphy seems to have taken off his armor for this one, trading in irony, humor and up tempo catchphrase tunes for sincerity and haunting melodies.

Oscar Wilde said thst the only reason for a work of art to exist is to be beautiful, and that beauty was useless, in the pragmatic, workaday sense.

This is a useless, beautiful album.

It feels like New York city at night, fat with promise and heartache.

Buy it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Danced Myself Clean, August 2, 2010

By 

Modest Man Mike (Southern California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: This Is Happening (Audio CD)

I don't know that anyone makes better use of Cowbell than LCD Soundsystem. I don't know if its even possible. But seriously, they make good use of every instrument on every album. It's clearly a mission to take Old School Analog gear and percussion from old school dance and electronica and reinvent them in a fresh way.

Somehow they find ways to keep the music rich while appearing simple and highly accessible. This is True on all the LCD Sound System Albums, but especially on "This Is Happening". Ironically, on the track "you wanted a hit" he talks about how they don't set out to "make hits", but i truly believe LCD succeeds by staying true to its heart and making music that they as a band believe in.

This definitely an album to check out if you're looking for anything with cool grooves and a touch of rock here and there. its a nicely balanced palate of funk, dance, rock, with "indie" flavor and tongue in cheek sprinklings of humor.

My stand out tracks are (in order of appearance): DANCE YOURSELF CLEAN; DRUNK GIRLS; ONE TOUCH; I CAN CHANGE; YOU WANTED A HIT; POW POW; and HOME.

If you haven't heard the other albums, make sure to pick up Sound of Silver and the LCD Soundsystem albums.

Five stars for this one.