BARRY COURTER: James Murphy has earned fans young and old by creating very listenable and danceable techno/rock/funk. “This Is Happening” is reportedly the last LCDS record, and that is too bad.
The songs manage to have a fresh sound to them, but fans of Brian Eno, David Bowie (especially the so-called “Berlin Trilogy” stuff), David Byrne and Robert Fripp will find a comfortable familiarity with nearly every song. I’m a huge fan of the work Bowie and Eno did together and, clearly, so is Murphy. A song like “All I Want,” with its whirling, driving keyboards, could easily be dismissed as a “Heroes” rip-off, but it works.
Murphy manages to create music that works on the glowstick-lit dance floors and your MP3 player. His soul-bearing lyrics are as interesting as his arrangements and production skills.
CASEY PHILLIPS: I have to disagree with Barry about the “working on your MP3 player” part. Murphy’s music is so nuanced and layered that without decent speakers or a good set of cans (read: not earbuds), you’re going to be missing a great deal.
I’m also not as in love with this album as Barry, which is odd because I’ve been looking for it since tracks started leaking into the blogosphere earlier this year. “Sound of Silver,” LCDS’ 2007 album, was a critical blowout that was high on most Best of the Year lists, setting an impossibly high bar for a follow-up. “This Is Happening” comes close to that bar, but it doesn’t surpass it.
“This Is Happening” is fun, quirky and clever, but sometimes too much of the latter two for its own good, as with “Somebody’s Calling Me” and the otherwise brilliant “All I Want,” which heap on weirdness seemingly for weirdness’ sake alone.
More often that not, however, Murphy gets it right, and when that’s the case, the album demonstrates his keen ear for compelling production (“Dance Yrself Clean”) and ironic, commentative lyrics (“Pow Pow”).
BARRY: I really like this record and would recommend it highly. If you do like it, I’d also suggest you go buy Bowie’s “Heroes,” “Low” and “Lodger,” if you don’t already own them.
CASEY: Whatever else can be said about “This Is Happening,” it’s certainly meaty. Only two of the 11 tracks fall below the four-minute mark, and six exceed seven minutes. Some of the latter sound a little stretched, like “Throw” which, at 10 minutes long, is the song equivalent of an Oliver Stone epic.
Most of the time, however, Murphy kept my attention from wavering. It may not be perfect, but “This Is Happening” would be a fine sendoff, if LCDS is, in fact, calling it quits.