LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening

Label: DFA

It's 2010 and more than any other New York artist, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is held as the barometer of the city's musical health. If that seems like a high-pressure situation, Murphy sounds unfazed, loose and confident -- and most important, fun and playful in a predictably meta way -- on his third album, This Is Happening. With Murphy's chief co-conspirators from the LCD live band (Gavin Russom, Nancy Whang, Pat Mahoney) now pitching in on some songwriting, This Is Happening feels more like the well-rounded work of several like-minded friends than of one anxious, talented guy. The puzzling thing is why they chose "Drunk Girls" -- bouncy and lyrically layered but not one of the album's strongest cuts -- as the first single. The effortlessly moving (but sad) "All I Want" would've done well, or the statuesque, Bowie-evoking "I Can Change." At eight minutes-plus, the funky floor-filler "Pow Pow" is a little long in its album form to be a single, but it might be the best track here, with Murphy speak-singing his way through the album's most cutting lyrics as well. This is the album that NYC will be dancing to and analyzing all summer long. As Murphy says on "Pow Pow": "There's advantages to both." (M.L. Thrope)