James Murphy has become a cultural reference point. Now, I highly doubt that this was what he had in mind years ago when he began releasing music but it seems that he has made peace with the fact that he has become a marketable brand. But with the release of This Is Happening, he springs from this mold and creates an object of 70's art-rock glory. With debts to idols, Brian Eno and David Bowie, the former having always hovered over Murphy's music and the latter creeping into the limelight on This Is Happening, Murphy manages to skillfully combine the dance-rock ambience of Eno's proper releases and the glam-rock attitude of Bowie's Aladdin Sane, well most of his albums would apply, and delves even more deeply into his influences than on previous records and that within these tracks a pulsing, beating heart exists. Songs like the raucous "Drunk Girls" and the intensely introspective "Somebody's Calling Me" allow Murphy to indulge in his creative whims, while still staying faithful to his dance-rock pedigree. Murphy has crafted the best sort of homage to his heroes, one that respects the source influences enough to allow them to move and incorporate themselves naturally into the musical distillation of his own memories. This Is Happening makes the case that past and present musical trends need not be divided but that underneath the genre differences, the heart is the most important thing.
Tracklisting:
01. Dance Yrself Clean
02. Drunk Girls
03. One Touch
04. All I Want
05. I Can Change
06. You Wanted a Hit
07. Pow Pow
08. Somebody’s Calling Me
09. Home (listen to the mp3 below)
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