A Baker's Dozen for 2010 #11 - This Is Happening

The latest from LCD Soundsystem suffers from it's own set of extremely high expectations. Coming into the year, there wasn't a record with more anticipation than this one to me. After all, Sound Of Silver was so fucking good, it ended up in my top five albums if last decade, and was consistantly the source for my personal soundtrack for the past few years. It worked so well since the songs had depth, but were also so damn catchy. Could James Murphy pull off that mastery again?

The right answer is yes. This is happening is an exceptional album. From the buildup on opener "Dance Yourself Clean" to epic closer "Home", the album is crafted to make you think, emote, and of corse dance. But unfortunately the last album was so ridiculous that even this excellent shot couldn't reach those stellar heights. For example, if you put track 1 from each album against each other, then the two track twos against each other, etc, etc, This Is Happening would get trounced.

Don't think for a minute that I don't see the irony in my comments above. Murphy addresses it directly in the wonderfully funny "You Wanted A Hit". He basically bitch slaps hipsters like me for their criticism of his work. And deservedly so.

Bottom line is an average LCD album is better than most, and this one is better than average. That's why it made The Baker's Dozen.

BTW - The pic is from their show in Dallas. One of my favorites of the year. Only way it would have been better is if it wasn't on a school night. The show had lots of disco ball, and lots of cowbell. Win-Win.