The Happening

LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening

by J. Edward Keyes

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Published: Apr 28, 2010

There are myriad reasons to cheer the arrival of a new LCD Soundsystem record, not the least of which is that each one affords us, once again, the opportunity to hear what James Murphy has been listening to. From virtually any other musician, this bent toward protracted quotations and historic reverence would seem cheap and unimaginative, but Murphy, thankfully, isn't a mimic so much as a synthesist. Each LCD song is the sound of seven other songs happening at once, and which influence you notice depends on where you're focusing your attention. He's the sonic equivalent of Jacques Tati's Play Time.

Judging by This Is Happening (which comes out May 18), the third great LCD Soundsystem record in a row, the albums occupying most of Murphy's time lately have been the ones David Bowie made in Berlin. You can practically sing the melody to "Heroes" over Murphy's "All I Want," so similar is its motorik chug and high-arcing guitar line. Irresistible lead single "Drunk Girls" has the same fist-in-the air severity as "Boys Keep Swinging," and "Somebody's Calling Me" borrows the seasick throb of Iggy Pop's Bowie-produced "Nightclubbing" for its tale of romantic paralysis.

This would all be a bunch of record-geek wonkery, except that Murphy uses his predecessors only as springboards. By the time "All I Want" reaches its finale, it's been radically shapeshifted, synthesizers cascading down like a digital waterfall. It doesn't hurt that Murphy's an incredible smartass, one who laces his songs with countless underplayed punch lines. There's a left-field kiss-off to Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto in "Pow Pow Pow" (the chorus of which is "Pow! Pow Pow Pow Pow! Pow Pow Pow Pow!") and snide baiting of the biz in "You Wanted a Hit." As suncatcher-synths twinkle behind him, Murphy taunts, "Baby, we don't do hits."

That's where he's wrong, of course. It's simply that Murphy's hits are part of the same lineage as his heroes: Bowie, New Order, Brian Eno. They set the tempo — it's up to the rest of us to come around.

(j_keyes@citypaper.net)

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