lcd soundsystem, by proxy.
LCD Soundsystem has always required a little bit of hand holding with me. I’ve never actually been able to pick up the record and react with “Oh I like this!” upon first listening. I don’t know why, but it always takes one person to actually show me how good James Murphy really is, and that I need to listen to his records carefully and closely. After some gentle nudging I’ll give the record another listen and I’ll be hooked. After having gotten the promo copy of “This is Happening” weeks before the record was officially released, I listened to every single track on the record and found myself underwhelmed, unable to parse through the sarcasm and see any art in it.
Of course, there are exceptions, Tiga’s remix of Tribulations on James Zabiela’s beautiful Four.2, quite positively the best closer to a mix ever. If you do not have JZ’s Four.2, please let me know, this is above all, required reading to say you can speak of music with any authority, what so ever.
But let’s get back to the point, LCD’s “This is Happening”. A few months after the record came out, actually, quite a few months after- the original release date in the US being May- after I had made a rather harsh judgement on the record, believing it to be lackluster at best, a friend at work said, “Have you heard the new LCD Soundsystem?” I reacted with “Why yes I have, wasn’t particularly fond of it, actually.” He replies, very simply, “You have to listen to the first track, all the way through.” Now to explain this is a good friend, also on Tumblr, who goes by The Prestige Format (http://mini.prestigeformat.com/)- quite possibly the best handle ever and whose musical taste I tend to believe are quite superior to mine own- therefore, I took him at his word. The track starts off rather innocuous (get it?), a little bit of drums, a little bit of snares, a very characteristic little 303 arpeggio sitting in the background. The track, because of how quiet it is to begin with, is by nature one you immediately turn up. This is all followed by some very desolate, lonely lyrics, where you wonder how Mr. Murphy can actually stand people on a regular basis. But then, right before the track really hits, really blows the doors off the room, my friend says, “now listen, just right here” and the track comes through with just the most harsh, surprisingly loud illusion and play on the human ear. Really this is all just psychoacoustics, where the human ear listens for chords, volumes and time signatures of a very particular type. This is universal across the human condition; regardless of who you are, where you’ve been and what you’ve heard. Mr. Murphy uses the high contrast of quiet to loud to great effect across many of his records, using quiet moments to allow for build up and to really hit home a particular instrument, sound, or melody by using the empty soundscape to introduce a brilliantly loud instrument. In fact, this is what makes LCD Soundsystem: spartan soundscapes that are then blown wide open with memorably loud hooks.
But I digress. Afterwards, after that first hit, where the record really gets going, with some lovely, dirty, distorted reverb, those monolithic chord strikes, the track becomes infinitely playable, without hesitance and one of those songs that invites the listener to continue. This record really is just full of devils and details and an exorcism of all those lovely old cheesy synths we loved in the 80’s. Where “The Sound of Silver” seemed to rely heavily on the arps mechanically sequenced on Master Murphy’s oft used 303 (I am curious though, if it’s a devilfish mod?), “This is Happening” makes use of what sounds like a lot of yamahas and moogs, played simply, loosely, by hand, almost intentionally, slightly off. The drums too, sound very live, which seems to be James’ favorite thing: sequence the beat, then overlay using a nice tight drum kit. There are disco leanings everywhere, throughout, James bites his thumb at the death of disco, making thumpy beats, powering moogs into the forefront of the mix, in hopes of sticking it to 1979’s Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park.
There are some misses, where James indulges his punk rock leanings, like Drunk Girls, which just sounds like a very jaded joke, unfortunately not a very funny one. Like the music video made for it, the song takes its listeners to an unwilling end. There is this delicate balancing act James attempts between indie dance, punk and his very cynical self view & world view, sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails. He also employs a beat poetry verve on some of the songs, though most primarily, “Pow Pow”, where, like NIN’s “Only” from With Teeth, the vocals just comes off as bizarre. However, like NIN’s “Only”, which I came to like after quite a few listens, I am hopeful that “Pow Pow” will be the same case of a love that takes awhile to build.
Finally, as you all may well know about me by now dear reader, I love continuity between tracks, as if an artist writes entire songs as single lines in a rhyming couplet. James Murphy does his best at the end, where “Home” has the same background vocal chorus as “Dance Yrself Clean”. It’s the summation of the record, a love letter to the beginning, a sequel. Call it what you will, it ends the record with a lovely little bow wrapped around it.
So is the record good? Is it bad? Honestly I think it’s wonderful, though not perfect. There’s an apologetic quality to the music that I find interesting, where James continually berates modern culture and his own popularity, whilst asking for forgiveness for his fame from the people he truly cares for.
But music does sometimes takes another person’s excitement to get me going on it, and I have to again thank Prestige Format for this, as it was his excitement that made me listen to this record once again.
keep listening.
_backchat.
