LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Even before the inevitable leak surfaced online, the release of This Is Happening, the third long-player from James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem, was being overshadowed by rumours of retirement. In truth they were more than just rumours, with Murphy announcing in several interviews his plans to hang up the cowbell indefinitely once album number three was done, dusted and toured. All of which has left fans wondering whether this was a genuine case of artistic burnout, or a José Mourinhoesque tactic aimed at deflecting criticism of the new material. 

This writer is going to give Murphy the benefit of the doubt. Having just turned forty, he’s well within his right to call time on the band and turn his attention to other pursuits. Having said that, This Is Happening offers ample evidence of the fatigue that must have prompted such a decision; several of its nine tracks feel weighed-down and somewhat sluggish by LCD SS standards, and as a result the album never quite reaches boiling point. 

Of course, seasoned haters will probably dismiss this record outright, once more accusing Murphy of being little more than a jumped-up rip-off merchant with the right friends and a self-consciously cool record collection. As with previous outings, it’s possible even on first listen to pinpoint what Murphy and co. were likely listening to as This Is Happening took shape in the band’s vast L.A. mansion recording studio. So, we find ‘One Touch’ trying its best to drag Can’s ‘I Want More’ onto the dancefloor, while ‘All I Want’ sounds like a mashup of Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ and …Warm Jets-era Brian Eno. Elsewhere, both ‘Somebody’s Calling Me’ and ‘I Can Change’ venture into New Romantic territory – with mixed results – while Murphy even has time for a spot of self-plagiarism on lead single ‘Drunk Girls’, which has surely never been seen in the same room as Sound Of Silver’s ‘Watch The Tapes’. 

Imitation is no crime, however, especially in today’s post-everything nostalgia industry, and Murphy’s blatant nods to the past are not what let This Is Happening down. As the ginger one himself explained recently: “I’d rather have a song I like that sounds like another song, than a song that I’m hoping nobody notices sounds like another song that I’m not that into.” 

The problem with this swansong – if indeed that’s what it’s to become – is that so much of it sounds like a swansong. Lacking the giddy shapes of the band’s self-titled debut, and shorn of the emotional oomph that gave Sound Of Silver such crossover appeal, the comparatively leaden workouts here give the distinct impression of a band winding down and running out the clock. A weariness is plainly evident in many of the album’s lyrics, not least in opener ‘Dance Yrself Clean’’s telling acknowledgement that “Everybody’s getting younger / It’s the end of an era, it’s true.” The similarly reflective ‘All I Want’, meanwhile, sees Murphy repeatedly ask for pity, before the song fades out with a bellowed refrain of “Take me home…”. And speaking of home, it can’t be mere coincidence that the album’s strangely flat closing track is called just that. 

Make no mistake: This Is Happening is a more than solid final chapter in the decade-long saga of DFA’s house band. But those who might have been expecting an explosive finale will perhaps feel disappointed by what amounts to a merely passable, and not particularly memorable, curtain-closer.