This Is Happening

This Is Happening is the third studio album by American rock band LCD Soundsystem. It was released first on May 17, 2010, jointly through DFA and Virgin Records in the United States and Parlophone elsewhere. It was recorded over the course of 2009 and early 2010 in the Mansion recording studio in Los Angeles. The first single, "Pow Pow", was released in April 2010, with a music video directed by Spike Jonze. The album is dedicated to Jerry Fuchs (1974–2009), who performed drums live with the band on occasion, as well as having a big part in associated DFA acts.

Reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, This Is Happening received an average score of 84, based on 38 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". It also achieved an ADM Rating of 7.7/10 on another review aggregator, AnyDecentMusic?.

Guardian reviewer Alexis Petridis observed that the album did not contain Sound of Silver's "startling sense of mapping out new territories", instead sticking to a template that worked "incredibly well." In his review for AllMusic, Tim Sendra had a similar opinion, stating that while This Is Happening "doesn't quite reach the monumental heights" of the band's previous album, it still provided proof that LCD Soundsystem was "one of the most exciting and interesting bands around in the 2000s." Sendra also commended Murphy's expansion as a lyricist and songwriter, and said that his production on the album "reveal[s] him at the top of his game", while Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone said that it contained some of Murphy's "most earnest, lovelorn songs." Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal awarded the album a Best New Music accolade, describing it as "pretty perfect".

Accolades
This Is Happening has appeared on multiple year-end and decade-end lists. According to Metacritic, This Is Happening was the third-highest ranked 2010 album overall on year-end critics lists. This Is Happening was voted the second best album of 2010 on The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 2010 with 1634 points, nearly half the points of the top album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Pitchfork ranked the songs "All I Want" and "I Can Change" at number eleven and number three respectively as the best tracks of 2010.

Personnel
All personnel and credits adapted from album liner notes.


 * LCD Soundsystem
 * James Murphy – vocals (tracks 1-9), guitar (tracks 2-4, 6, 7, 9), claps (tracks 2-4, 6, 7, 9), drums (tracks 2-4, 6, 9), bass (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8, 9), acoustic piano (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8), EMS VCS3 Putney (tracks 4, 6, 8), Korg Poly Ensemble (tracks 5, 6, 8), EMS PolySynthi (tracks 2, 6), EMS Synthi A (tracks 2, 6), Yamaha CS-60 (tracks 3, 5), Casio MT-68 (tracks 3, 8), percussion (tracks 3, 9), Simmons (tracks 5, 7), cowbell (tracks 5, 7), Roland System 100 (tracks 5, 8), Synare (tracks 6, 7), Wurlitzer electric piano (track 2), tambourine (track 2), Roland TR-606 (track 3), noise (track 3), glockenspiel (track 3), EML 101 (track 3), Casio CT-410V (track 3), Fun Machine (track 4), Roland TR-808 (track 5), Roland SH-101 (track 5), blocks (track 5), scraper (track 5), clapper (track 5), Moog Rogue (track 6), Moog CDX (track 6), Omnichord (track 7), vocoder (track 7), congas (track 7), snaps (track 8), Wurlitzer SideMan (track 8), Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 (track 9), Casio MT-400 (track 9), EMS VCS3 Putney programming (track 9)
 * Pat Mahoney – vocals (track 2), drums (track 7)
 * Nancy Whang – yells (track 3), vocals (track 7)
 * Tyler Pope – bass (track 7)
 * Phillip Mossman
 * Additional musicians
 * Rayna Russom – EMS PolySynthi (track 2), vocals (track 2), whispers (track 3)
 * Morgan Wiley – acoustic piano (track 2)
 * Al Doyle – guitar (track 6), Yamaha CS-60 (track 6)
 * Jayson Green – vocals (track 7)
 * Jason Disu – trombone (track 8)
 * Matt Thornley – snaps (track 8)
 * Matthew Cash – EMS VCS3 Putney (track 9)


 * Production
 * James Murphy – production, mixing (tracks 3, 4, 7, 9)
 * Dave Sardy – mixing (tracks 2, 5, 6, 8)
 * Bob Weston – mastering
 * Matthew Thornley – engineering assistance
 * Gunnar Bjerk – engineering assistance
 * Alec Gomez – engineering assistance
 * Andy Brohard – mix assistance
 * Alec Gomez – mix assistance
 * Cameron Barton – mix assistance
 * Release
 * Keith Wood – management
 * Michael Vadino – art direction
 * Brett Tabolt – design
 * Ruvan Wijesooriya – cover photos
 * Craig E. Averill – legal
 * Matthew Cash – human

Charts
The album debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 in its first week on sale, selling approximately 31,000 copies. It also topped Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart the same week of its debut, which dethroned Lady Gaga's The Fame from its five-month reign on the chart for one week. As of January 2016, the album has sold about 211,000 copies in United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. About 86,800 of those are physical copies, and about 124,500 of those are digital copies.

Notes and references

 * Notes


 * References