Last October LCD Soundsystem released “Bye Bye Bayou” on vinyl, an almost 8 minute cover of Alan Vega’s 1981 song, and now, seven months later they’ve gone and done a video for it.  It’s pretty trippy, so before you drop that acid tab, watch this.  Then drop it, and watch it again.

Their supposedly last and stunning album “This Is Happening” is out now.

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• Insound: CD
• emusic: Register for the free trial and get you first 25 songs absolutely free.

Today’s review is a guest post by our good friend Stephen over at The Crosshair.  Check them out for some really great reviews of music, film, games and TV.

In 2001, James Murphy sang “I hear you have a compilation tape of every great song by every great group ever” on the reputation-cementing “Losing My Edge”. It seems now that that particular line was more of a manifesto within a manifesto than was originally apparent. Murphy’s mission over the past decade has been to synthesise all the greatest music from the last thirty years into one sound. On this album, that he claims to be the last LCD Soundsystem album, he comes closer than ever.

The first thing that is apparent is that vocally, Murphy has transformed almost completely from Mark E. Smith to David Bowie. What this loses in force and energy, it makes up for in melody and emotion. Neither are easy to pull off, but Murphy manages without ever feeling like he is trying too hard. It’s this quality that sets Murphy apart from his peers – the feeling that he is never struggling to catch the zeitgeist, but casually setting it as he goes and playfully mocking it as he sails past.

Opener “Dance Yrself Clean” takes the Nirvana/Pixies quiet/loud dynamic and transplants it into what is almost a disco sound. We then slide right into first single “Drunk Girls”, which is the most obvious Bowie homage, from the backing vocals to the guitar sounds, all sounding very Berlin-era Bowie. Crucially though, and perhaps this gives LCD Soundsystem too much credit , but it feels more like an intelligent artistic statement than straight plagiarism. It also includes such giggle inducing lyrics as “Drunk girls know that love is an astronaut/it comes back but it’s never the same.”

The centrepiece of the album though, is the 9 minute epic “You Wanted a Hit”. This is as close as Murphy has sounded to the aforementioned “Losing My Edge” since. It’s astonishing as it moves from icy space-synths into a stripped down guitar and drums groove over which Murphy delivers his new manifesto. It’s also incredible that after three albums and 10 years, a band can still make tracks thatsound like a manifesto. On this track and on “One Touch”, LCD Soundsytem marry the irreverence and experimentation of the first album with the craft and melody of the second.

If anyone has a claim to defining the noughties in the way that say Bowie defined the 70s, or Oasis defined the 90s, it’s LCD Soundsystem. The decade’s virtues and faults can all be found running through Murphy’s trilogy of albums. There is the mainstream postmodern cynicism, the constant recycling of the now archived and accessible past and the arch refusal to bow to commercial pressure, all the while making something close to perfect pop music.

Whether this is the last LCD Soundsystem album remains to be seen, but it will be very interesting to see what Murphy does next, whether he reclines back into his comfortable producers chair, begins something entirely anew or just quietly retires into the background. Even if that is the case, the legacy he will have left us is one as strong as anyone can lay claim to in the past ten years. If only he would leave us with one last compilation tape.

9/10

“This Is Happening” is released via DFA on May 17th in the U.K. and the 18th in the U.S.  You can listen to the whole album on their website.

Buy “This Is Happening” –  Amazon: LP (Vinyl) | CD | MP3 – Insound: CD – emusic: Register for the free trial and get 25 songs absolutely free.

Last week after their album leaked online they decided to put the whole thing up online for people to listen to and now they’ve released the video for “Drunk Girls” which can only be described as absolutely fucking awesome, featuring a shit-tonne of Insane Clown Posse wannabes (these ones have more talent) tormenting the band.

Buy “This Is Happening” – Amazon – CD | Insound – CD

Check it:

LCD Soundsystem’s latest (and quite possibly greatest) album “This Is Happening” is streaming in its entirety on their website.  The album leaked a few days ago and it’s spectacular, you should not only give it a listen, but give it 7 listens, and then go buy it.

Or buy it, and then just keep listening to it until it arrives. That works too. Below you can hear “Dance Yrself Clean” and “Drunk Girls”.

Listen to “This Is Happening“.

Buy “This Is Happening” – Amazon – CD | Insound – CD

The quality of the rip is a little on the poor side, but the quality of the music is not.  Ripped from NME Radio and sent to WeAllWantSomeone, it’s a brand new song that features on the upcoming movie “Greenberg” starring Ben Stiller.  The soundtrack features more music by LCD frontman James Murphy, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we get our grubby little hands on more.

Check it.