By Jack Randall

This Is Happening is a sexy album. It is also LCD Soundsystem’s best. At once reminiscent of Sound of Silver, and at the same time evoking something more classic, This Is Happening cuts to the roots of electronic. Think Roxy Music, Love and Rockets. This album would have been right at home coming out in the early-80’s, and even the cover art seems to be a direct tribute to the giants of the genre.

The first track “Dance Yrself Clean” starts the album off stripped-down, clean of digital production sensations, foraging in a mysterious world of analog, like an homage to ‘70s electro. The raw feel of this song is instantly reminiscent of a Martin Hannet mix and a thin atmosphere envelopes James Murphy’s voice, creating a sensation of being trapped inside a box with a Moog, a sampler, and a used microphone. Just three minutes into this song that familiar LCD groove kicks in, when it hits it’s like welcoming an old friend. Simple structure, simple mix, and perfect execution introduce This Is Happening.

The single “Drunk Girls” is the biggest departure from Sounds of Silver. An upbeat, jangled funk, “Drunk Girls” is destined to become the party anthem for sloppy sorors everywhere, endowing them with such saintly virtues as patience and popularity. The chorus line emphatically hammers home the song title before praising the qualities of the inebriated fairer sex versus the fallbacks of drunk boys. But don’t let that detract you. The track could have been snuck in with any number of David Bowie’s cracked-out recordings from his Eno days and fit right in.

The fervent electro-sprawl and blaring vocals on tracks like “One Touch” quickly gives way to the cobweb song structure of “Somebody’s Calling Me,” every note like the delicate and purposeful pluck of a spider’s foot. “I Can Change” brings to mind the ethereal verses of Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Lips Like Sugar,” with weightless vocals over delicate chords.

“Home” rounds out the album, and if James Murphy is to be believed closes out LCD Soundsystem’s recording career as well. A fitting accolade to LCD’s catalogue, “Home” plays out like a lyrical fond farewell. Musically it meanders across the broad spectrum of the album’s sounds, infusing the classic and the refreshingly new, a dash of funk and disco thrown in. As with the rest of the album, “Home” evokes the sounds of the genre’s greatest while imprinting its own unique stamp. With This Is Happening, James Murphy maintains and matures his own unique style while standing on the shoulders of giants, and the view from up there is fantastic.