This is a contender for the best album of the year. I've listened to it 100 times already, and I don't think it's officially released yet. It's a big jump from the last two LCD records, which were electronic sequencer albums for the most part. This record is closer to their live act. Songs like 'Drunk Girls' and 'Pow Pow' are more straight ahead Punk songs, kindred to The Fall. The rest of the record grooves like The Talking Heads, but experiments like Stereolab. This is an example of a band with no limits or boundaries. They'll make you dance, make you sing, make you wanna drink and party the night away, but don't let the shtick fool you, these are intelligent compositions from a musicians stand-point. Other bands enter this territory of music, like Primal Scream or Pink Skull, but those bands use longer chord progressions and Classic Rock melodies. LCD bases everything around the beat. They intentionally do not overwhelm the listener with unexpected chord changes, or versatile drum beats, but focus directly on the dance element, usually staying on 2 or 3 chords over high-energy Disco grooves.
"This is Happening" marks the beginning of a new chapter for this band, most importantly, sounding-like-a-band. I have always thought of them as a dude with a lot of crazy gadgets making music on a laptop somewhere, but as live sounding as they want to get, this record represents what they're about as a collective. (unless it's all James Murphy, and the band are hired-guns for touring purposes?) Nevertheless, the end result is THE SHIT! Buy this record, it's worth your money.
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