"This Is Happening": the third album by LCD Soundsystem

A few people (including me) didn't think This Is Happening was so great, but I certainly don't despise them/him or anything.

Oh...that's all. I thought it was ok for what it was. The second album is the best in my opinion. If they were going for a trilogy kind of thing the third one is always the weakest.

you should have read the 2010 ALBUMS and TRACKS polls. whoof there be some haters.

I was under the impression people loved it. This is why I'll never understand indie/indie dance music scene (or maybe it is just the internet scene). Do people want musicians to survive pass two albums or do they just want to cut to the chase of hating them because that's the cool thing to do?

The only reasons I had for not liking the last album fall squarely into the "he's done this before, and better" school of thought. Half the people bitch if you keep doing the same thing, the other half bitch if you change it up. It's hard to win, really.

yeah, i was being a bit facetious with the backlash comment. certain groups of internet people will hate on anything that pitchfork-reading white indie boys who "don't understand dance" like, especially if they see a band like LCD Soundsystem as wannabe stuff.

I guess that's why you have people who are hardcore fans (or "stans" in some music circle say) and embrace the same aesthetic touches in a musician's/band's music. I wasn't a hardcore fan of LCD, but I liked their aesthetic and accepeted it for what it was. I wasn't surprised that he didn't stray from it on the third album.

yeah, i was being a bit facetious with the backlash comment. certain groups of internet people will hate on anything that pitchfork-reading white indie boys who "don't understand dance" like, especially if they see a band like LCD Soundsystem as wannabe stuff.

Haha thanks for the clarification. I'm a black hip hop/r&b loving boy who think LCD Soundsystem are great!!! I wonder what the haters would say about me.

Wow. I would love to see that show. Even though I didn't love This is Happening, they are probably the best live band i've ever seen.

also, this was pointed out to me recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Bae3R49ew

kind of rotten for them not to credit that on the album.

well if they had to be honest about everything on that lp that wasn't very original it would be fairly awkward yeah?

Are there other examples of direct rips like that? I mean, they just played that song almost note for note and added some vocals. I'm not sure if there are other songs on the album that are copies and not just 'inspired' by.

whoa...I mean I love LCD's version of this but holy cow that is a pretty direct rip

It's really no worse than the "Homosapien" and "Nighclubbing" rips.

I don't mind the "Nightclubbing" one so much because I don't really like the LCD version, while "Dance Yrself Clean" is one of my favorite songs of theirs, I know it doesn't really make sense but that's why it bothers me. Also it sounds like this one is a real obscurity so it just seems that much more shady; I don't think the Iggy Pop rip was supposed to get by anybody.

BTW which song did they rip off "Homosapien" for??? It does sound a bit like "North American Scum" but it's not obvious to me..

it sounds a LOT like North American Scum

this album did away entirely with what i liked best about them: on the first two albums, not only did they have a cool, edgy indie aesthetic with interesting vox and lyrics, but they combined that with beats that were genuinely danceable, or at least made you want to move/bounce around. "this is happening" loses almost all the funkyness of the previous albums and singles - therefore, i dislike it. if you liked lcd soundsystem for reasons other than mine, you might like this album more than i do, i can't really knock it, it's got some cool vocals and arrangements and stuff, but for me, they've lost their edge.

that said, the lack of danceable grooves may very well be why they've suddenly gotten popular with all my anti-dance-music, indie-rock-or-nothin friends; for all i know mr. murphy has made this stylistic change on purpose. but still.

Pow Pow?

but for me, they've lost their edge.

i guess the bright side of the break-up will be never reading the above zinger again. "as for me, i've got lcd soundsystem's beats ON REPEAT."

can anyone confirm if the sessions cd a limited release ?

Not sure where you are, but I've seen it all over the place. Even my local Best Buy (which has reduced its music section to virtually nothing) has multiple copies.

uk.
its about here and there, but nowhere near as much presence as previous LCD releases.
and given EMIs ongoing chaos, was wondering if this is one of those buy now, or regret later releases as various corners of the catalogue gets deleted.

Yeah, that fear is why I grabbed it as soon as I saw it, but since then I've seen it all over the place.

lcd soundsystem are playing madison square garden on april 2nd, and it will be our last show ever. we are retiring from the game. gettin’ out. movin’
on. but for just one more night, we will be playing with friends and family for nearly 3 hours–playing stuff we’ve never played before and going out with a bang. and we’d like you to be there.

if you would, we’d love it if people all came in white. or black. or black and white. and come ready to have fun, please. and come early, as the festivities will be opened by our favorites, liquid liquid. yes: liquid
liquid.

if it’s a funeral, let’s have the best funeral ever!!!

GENERAL ONSALE FEBRUARY 11TH

lcd's doing colbert on valentine's day, apparently.

uk.
its about here and there, but nowhere near as much presence as previous LCD releases.
and given EMIs ongoing chaos, was wondering if this is one of those buy now, or regret later releases as various corners of the catalogue gets deleted.

― mark e

I've seen no sign that this is a limited release. I just ordered it from Play last night it's 7.99 on there and Amazon. You can get it from actual sellers for a bit cheaper but they all seem to be American, it must be much more available there.

Actually I kind of agree that this one was "less danceable" than the previous two, but it doesn't make it worse or anything. Like SoS there's like 4-5 killer tracks and some other decent material/filler, but overall it's one of the best of the year. Ripped or not "Dance Yrself Clean" is incredible.

By the way while we're on the subject of ripoffs the track "Thrills" is so much a rewrite of "Warm Leatherette" that I'm surprised they didn't get slagged more for it..."Losing My Edge" is mostly taken from a Killing Joke song, "Daft Punk.." is basically "TNT" and Murphy imitates Mark E. Smith for the entire first album. And yet they get off scot-free while Scooter gets slammed for doing the same thing??

murphy said at the time that 'thrills' was basically 'warm leatherette' + 'get ur freak on'

Never got to see them, but assuming I can get online before tickets sell out (and my boss doesn't have me working that Saturday) I may actually make it to this show! Excited, but sad.

I thought the beat on Losing My Edge was from A Certain Ratio?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnqN-rGM3J8

Not as obvious as Dance Yrself Clean but it's more obvious than Leaving On A Jet Plane / Run.

"get innocuous" = kraftwerk "robots"

THIS JUST IN: MUSIC OF LCD SOUNDSYSTEM CAUGHT "REFERENCING" OTHER MUSICS

like, come on ppl. This is part of their whole shtick.

At least make an interesting thread like the Stereolab references one that Milton did.

sometimes I wonder if certain people only like bands whose references they don't get/recognize

List The Direct References of Stereolab

Shakey OTM. I'm so glad that when I first heard the Jesus & Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 I didn't know much about older bands so I wasn't ticking off the references. It's an increasingly hard thing to remember when reviewing records as you get older - you don't want to become the old killjoy going, "That song you like? Well it's taken from this." Sample-based music is different though, and I see LCD's lifts as almost live (and uncredited) samples so it's more like a hip hop record, where finding out the sources doesn't detract from my enjoyment, and in fact enhances it because of what's been done to those sources.

When I interviewed James Murphy for this record he talked about this French journalist who was trying to catch him out, going [I quote his impression]. "So, zis song All I Want, perhaps you 'ave been listening to David Bowie's Heroes, non?" And he replied, "Well yes. Obviously. That was the idea."

dunno how hearing the jamaica running song would ruin 'dance yrself clean'...like, yeah, clearly he ripped the drums from a sorta boring song as part of the intro to his much more inneresting song. if the jamaica running song suddenly broke out in the crazy fuzz synth riff I might be disappointed.

they do a lot of great covers so it's easy to see their "originals" as barely disguised covers. doesn't bother me at all.

going to try to get tickets to that MSG show, saw them at Bowery Ballroom on the tour for the first record and it was great.

the pool >>> dance yrself clean though

Yeah that's a good point but I would never say the song was ever 'ruined' for me, I mean Datarock do this all the time too and they're one of my favorite bands. I think it's more of a disappointment in realizing that this band is something you define as say, the sound of the 00's or whatever in your eyes, only to realize that it's just the same as the 80's but with a facelift.

someone very reliable once told me that the original All My Friends was so much like a certain 80s New Order track (i forget which) that they'd have got sued if it'd have come out that way. so they had to go back and fiddle with it to make it sound.. a lot less so.

how come say Elastica had to give co-writing credits for the Wire/ Sranglers steals on Connection and Waking Up and Blur for the much less obvious Bowie/ Eno steals on M.O.R. but not LCD for theirs? i love LCD so i'm not out to diss em, just.. wondering why some bands get away with it and some don't.

I thought the beat on Losing My Edge was from A Certain Ratio?

that's just a casio preset, isn't it?

The Killing Joke song is called "Change" and it's a B-Side. IIRC the beat is played with a bass guitar or something. The KJ version is obviously a lot heavier but it's very similar.

Big difference between lifting a melody and lifting a beat. People don't cry plagiarism when someone uses the Be My Baby beat.

how come say Elastica had to give co-writing credits for the Wire/ Sranglers steals on Connection and Waking Up and Blur for the much less obvious Bowie/ Eno steals on M.O.R. but not LCD for theirs?

probably because back when Blur and Elastica were making those records they were actually making tons of money off hit singles and associated CD sales. This is not the case with LCD Soundsystem.

Rule No. 1 of Litigation: Don't sue poor people

Rule No. 1 of Litigation: Don't sue poor people

Tell that to the RIAA.

RIAA not really a model of successful litigators imho