LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Mit großem Elan sucht Ingo derzeit die diversen Bestenlisten 2010 heraus und postet sie beim jeweiligen Sieger. Auffallend oft ist auf den vorderen Rängen der Name LCD Soundsystem zu lesen.

Das dritte (und vielleicht letzte) Album von LCD Soundsystem erschien bereits im Mai und konnte, was für ein elektronisches Album recht ungewöhnlich ist, sogar die amerikanischen Top Ten erreichen und kurzfristig das dort fest gewachsene "The Fame" (Lady Gaga) von der Spitze der Dance/Electronic Charts verdrängen.
Peter Murphy, Mitgründer von DFA Records, packt auf "This Is Happiness" alles, was man von ihm erwartet/erhofft: die kurze prägnante Hitsingle, die ausufernden, monotonen, überlangen Dance-Songs, Kuhglocken, seine gesammelten Weisheiten (wahlweise gesungen oder geschrieen), musikhistorisches Grundwissen (mit Augenmerk auf 70ies Glam Rock, New Wave und 80er Jahre Elektro-Pop) und die Fähigkeit das Ganze Tanzflächen füllend aufzubereiten.
Mich tangiert "This Is Happiness" nicht besonders, daher lag es hier ein halbes Jahr nahezu unangerührt, aber vielleicht folgt/versteht der Ein oder Andere hier den/die Lobeshymnen...

You could argue that This Is Happening lacks its predecessor's startling sense of mapping out new territories, but if it confines itself to doing what LCD Soundsystem do, it does it all incredibly well. At one end of the emotional spectrum there's the shouty indie-disco flavours of Drunk Girls and Pow Pow, the latter of which sets a stream of consciousness rant against a backdrop of twitchy guitars and flanged hi-hats. At the other there's All I Want's bruising confection of guitars and doo-wopping backing vocals that recall Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets and what sounds like Murphy bitterly picking over a failed relationship, and there is I Can Change, on which the perky early 80s dance-pop setting conceals a mounting sense of hopelessness and desperation. "I can change," he keeps repeating, "if it will help you fall in love with me."

It ends with Home, its burbling synthesisers and clattering percussion simultaneously euphoric and subdued, with Murphy, as ever, plagued by doubts on the dancefloor, unable to decide whether music "can shut the door on terrible times" or only mask them partially: "Love and rock are fickle things … under lights we're all unsure." But he signs off with an unexpectedly positive flourish: "If you're afraid of what you need, it won't get any better." For once, he sounds like a man facing the future confidently. Given the records LCD Soundsystem leave behind, you can't really blame him.
(guardian.co.uk)

"Drunk Girls" Audio

Crank up "Dance Yourself Clean," the opening track on LCD Soundsystem's third album, at your own peril: a pitter-pat of drums and main man James Murphy's muttering lead to a speaker-lacerating modular synth blast. "Everybody's getting younger / It's the end of an era, it's true," Murphy states, revisiting the hipster-crank persona that he's embodied ever since his epochal and encyclopedic debut single, "Losing My Edge."

But what keeps Murphy from being an insufferable know-it-all is how he folds deeper emotions into his references. "All My Friends" resonated not because of the Reichian piano and Pink Floyd reference but for its friendship lament. Happening's heart is "Change," which uses an early acid beat to detail a disintegrating relationship. Murphy's high register breaks at the refrain of "in love," and it's the most emotionally devastating dance-floor moment since New Order's heyday.

Recording at Rick Rubin's Los Angeles mansion rather than in hometown New York makes for slightly more languid and spacious grooves than on 2007's Sound of Silver. Only the new-wave shout-along "Drunk Girls" (yes, it's as annoyingly catchy as you might expect) is edited to pop specifications. On the driving "You Wanted a Hit," a beatless shimmer dovetails into an "Our Lips Are Sealed" backbeat over nine delectably uncommercial minutes. "We don't do hits," Murphy sneers. Older, snottier, his edge remains.
(spin.com)