Day 16, LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

LCD Soundsystem has been accredited by Rolling Stone for bringing the hipsters back to life. They feel that This is Happening is a masterpiece (or something like that, I don’t have the article with me so I can’t put it in quotes) because it has brought dance music back into the “cool” scenes. This is one hell of a feat, considering this generation of concert-goers is notably one of most led-footed. No moshing. No hippy dancing. No skank. No break dancing. No mashed potato. Just a lot of cool noise without any good way for us to express our love for it, so we just stand around and say we’re having fun. Personally, I am remedying myself of this deficiency by seeing Phish a bunch this summer, and I suggest you do the same to get some swing back into your step.

Although I feel moderate-to-positive about This is Happening, I am not sure that it is all that danceable after-all, and even if it is, if that fact alone warrants a resounding applause. No doubt this album is hinged on heavy beats, but I don’t think LCD is starting the next big craze. No macarana here, although I bet everyone is fine with that.

I cannot picture myself dancing to a lot of these tracks, though. Am I going to cut loose to “One Touch,” with it’s marching, techno-style, four-to-the-floor rhythm and the singer who sounds like a German porn star? Probably not. “Drunk Girls,” Somebody’s Calling,” and “All I Want” definitely aren’t making it onto Club Dry-Hump’s mega-mix, either. The club-bangers here are “I Can Change,” “You Wanted a Hit,” and “Pow Pow.”

But there is an issue: these are three of the worst tracks on the album. “I Can Change” has an off-putting 80’s synth line that sounds as if a kid wanted to make a noise to represent Dracula in his 5th grade play. In its defense, this song does have one of the best vocal performances on the album. But that isn’t too hard, given what else he’s doing. Both “Pow Pow” and “You Wanted a Hit” feature an awkward, half singing/half talking technique which is just uncomfortable.

Quick antidote: I put This is Happening on while my girlfriend and I were sitting down to dinner. I popped the album on, starting where I had left off at “You Wanted a Hit.” Holly cringed at first, but I ignored her initial response and kept chatting. Then “Pow Pow” came on and conversation ceased and we both stared at the Ipod as if was asking us a stupid question. When the fake-yelling, “POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!POW!” started up, she said to the speakers with as much sarcasm as possible, “Wow. Real cool, man.” So I skipped to the next track. Then to me with as little sarcasm as possible, “Can you please make that stop?”

Sure, discussing my girlfriend’s bashing isn’t a real effective way to credibly describe This is Happening, but it shows something that I thought was worth mentioning: the album is sort of awkward. When listening on my headphones, I rather enjoyed myself. It was walking me along through my day, head bobbing from side-to-side, quite contently. But right when I heard it on speakers when other people were listening too, I felt real uneasy. It was just like that feeling you get when you show someone a piece of writing, or song, or painting or whatever, of yours that you originally felt really proud of until that moment when someone else is looking at it with you and everything falls apart.

There are a few songs on here that still hold themselves up, though. “Home” is great. It talks, rather candidly too, about old friends and advice. “You might forget the sound of my voice, but you should not forget, yeah don’t forget, the things we laughed about.” Also, “Drunk Girls” is a nice departure from the rest of the album. It is much more punk-rock, lyrically as well as musically, and the energy is there to back it up.