Written by Danny Hunter
“Every night’s a different story
It’s a thirty car pile-up with you
Everybody’s getting younger
It’s the end of an era, it’s true”
Released in May of 2010 through DFA and Virgin Records, LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening is an alternative dance album that embodies a deep and unapologetic sense of pure expression. It presents songs about the messiness of the human experience with a timeless sense of effortless cool, creating an irresistibly dynamic suite of songs.
It’s impossible to discuss This Is Happening without mentioning the anthemic opening track, Dance Yrself Clean, an extremely cathartic listen channeling feelings of disconnection, isolation, and exhaustion, while also offering a solution to the chaos of life: dancing until it all fades away. The song is an ultimate, satisfying release, not only in its lyricism and structure, but also in the construction of its sound. The synth on this track is so addicting that I find myself turning up the volume far past what is healthy for my ears, sometimes on repeat for hours on end; I’m sure I have noticeable hearing loss from this song alone.
It’s no surprise an indie/alternative album of the late 2000’s has such a palpable influence from post-punk of the late 70s and new wave of the early 80s, especially with its 2010 release date being right in the midst of a garage rock/post punk revival. Frontman James Murphy openly draws most from groups like New Order, Suicide, Eurythmics, and ESG, and while his love of post-punk shines through in the entire LCD Soundsystem discography, it has a very distinct presence on this album. Somebody’s Calling Me evokes Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing in its droning, piano-driven beat and minimalistic slowness, and a touch of The Psychedelic Furs’ Yes I Do (Merry-Go-Round) shows in the tone of the ringing synth on the chorus. This isn’t the only time I hear The Psychedelic Furs’ influence on this album either— All I Want sounds as if it could have been written for the Furs’ album Talk Talk Talk with its upbeat, hopeful noisiness, and a melancholic, distorted guitar evocative of David Bowie’s Heroes. Pow Pow has all the awkward spoken-word qualities of early Talking Heads.
This aforementioned awkwardness is present throughout the album. The entire discography of LCD Soundsystem alternates between trend-setting artistic cool and a self-awareness of how ridiculous one can become when they desperately seek out that same quality, and regardless of where any given song sits on that spectrum, it is embraced fully. While the album carries itself with a sense of creative pretentiousness, it doesn’t come across as strongly as it does in earlier LCD tracks like Losing My Edge, and the album has an emotional earnestness and a deep sense of relatability. Tracks like Dance Yrself Clean carry their emotional weight with a sense of both triumphance and indifference, whereas I Can Change explores the pain of relationships through an optimistically self-destructive lens. Tracks like One Touch are less openly emotional but still have a driving sense of action and directness, as the emotional meaning is overshadowed by its intense and repetitive sonic nature.
This Is Happening is a great album for anyone in need of some electric, synth-driven energy, or anyone braving the messiness of life while jumping from one party to the next. It almost feels as if the album manages to commiserate with the listener, but not in a way that is sensitive or leaves the listener lower than when they first put on the album— it is truly, deeply cathartic, embracing careless indulgence as a way to let go and forget one’s cares, regardless of what further turmoil it may cause the next day. This is an album akin to a good house-party; I’ve had multiple conversations with friends where we collectively wish to hear more songs like Dance Yrself Clean or I Can Change in a nightlife setting. I frequently see articles online complaining that young adults, especially those in college, are spending less time going out, partying, or dancing; maybe we’d go out more often if the music we heard brought as much energy as this album.
Favorites: Pow Pow, Drunk Girls, I Can Change