IN CELEBRATION OF... LCD Soundsystem

As I've done with Gorillaz' and Los Campesinos!'s 9 and 9.5/10 albums this year, here's the best of LCD Soundsystem's videos to educate yourself with and also in celebration of their 9/10 for "This Is Happening".
(Okay, so the last one isn't LCD, but it's pretty damn amazing)

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

For those out of the loop, LCD Soundsystem are probably the most consistently great band of the last five years. Having garnered near universal acclaim with their first two albums "LCD Soundsystem" and "Sound Of Silver", as well as three Grammy nominations along the way, it’s fair to say they’re a pretty big deal. The brains behind it all and the only actual member is New York DJ, producer and co-founder of DFA Records, James Murphy, whose barely-even-singing singing voice has been the calling card of the band since their first single back in 2002. Having created what many to consider to be two of the best songs of the noughties (apologies for using that phrase) in “Someone Great” and “All My Friends”, expectations have been a little high for LCD’s third, and if Murphy is to be believed, final album.

Lead single “Drunk Girls” wasn’t well received by all LCD fans, although most saw it as a good, if slightly disposable, dancefloor filler in the vein of previous single “North American Scum”. But “Drunk Girls” with its pop sensibilities and instant raucous hook is a world away from the rest of “This Is Happening”. For one, it’s under five and a half minutes long and sounds nothing like Berlin-era David Bowie, whereas the other eight tracks do. Album opener “Dance Yrself Clean”, with its slow and steady build-up to the show-stopping drop, could well be the best thing Murphy has ever done and the quality doesn’t let up from there on in. “I Can Change” is a swirling, shimmering slice of modern disco that you’ll be whistling for the whole day after hearing it, whilst “Pow Pow” and “You Wanted A Hit” return to the dance-punk sound that Murphy and DFA Records helped to create. Despite the latter song’s hook of “We won’t be your babies anymore”, it lives up to its title by being the only other possible hit after “Drunk Girls”, despite being nine minutes long.
“All I Want” is such a pastiche of “Heroes” it’s almost a disappointment when a coke-addled Bowie fails to turn up halfway though. Almost. “Somebody’s Calling Me” continues in treading the line between pastiche and rip-off, by sounding like the illegitimate offspring of Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing”. Whilst with lesser artists you’d accuse of a lack of ideas or shamelessly rehashing the past, with LCD Soundsystem, it just sounds like an obvious homage to Murphy’s influences. If “This Is Happening” is definitely to be Murphy’s last album under the LCD name then there’s few better ways to sign off than album closer “Home”, a funky-yet-heartfelt future floor-filler that surely wasn’t intended as such. It’s the closest LCD Soundsystem has come to a conventional pop song over three albums.

“This Is Happening” isn’t full of pure dance-punk hits like “North American Scum” or “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”, neither is it a collection of earnest, soulful laments such as the previously-mentioned “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” as some may have hoped. Instead its sound is somewhere in between; songs to make you move your hips and break your heart at the same time. They’ll be missed.
FOR FANS OF: Hot Chip, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The Rapture, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice
ESSENTIAL: "Dance Yrself Clean", "Drunk Girls", "I Can Change", "All I Want, "Somebody's Calling Me", "Home"
9/10

01 Dance Yrself Clean by HitsvilleUK-1

Kele - Tenderoni

Since Bloc Party have gone on hiatus recently, its members have been given a chance to venture into that uneven of lands known as "side projects". Russell Lissack has formed Pin Me Down with Milena Mapris (essentially a electro-pop version of Bloc Party), Gordon Moakes is now a part of Young Legionnaire with The Automatic's Paul Mullen and La Roux's William Bowerman and, whilst drummer Matt Tong has stayed quiet so far, frontman Kele Okereke has gone solo, embracing his love of clubbing and dance music. "Tenderoni", the first fruits of his solo album "The Boxer", recieved its first radio play tonight to divided opinion. Sounding plagarisingly close to both Wiley's "Wearing My Rolex" and Bodyrox's "Yeah Yeah", "Tenderoni" will almost certainly be a mammoth club hit come the summer, even if it lacks that one big vocal hook that every dance classic needs. Skip to 1:36 and you can just envisage the sweaty crowd of skinny jeans going absolutely apeshit...in a good way. The first proper summer anthem is here, and I expect there's plenty more to come on the album.
8.5/10

INTO THE SPOTLIGHT... Gold Panda

GOLD PANDA
The Essex-located, Japan-obsessed producer (he attended the School of Oriental and Asian Studies for two years, learning to read and write Japanese) has spent the last year or so becoming the go-to guy for remixes, at the same time as releasing three EPs of his own stellar material. Having tinkered with tracks from Little Boots, Telepathe, Bloc Party and Health, Gold Panda's tracks are likely to become just as vital of a summer soundtrack as The Drums, Summer Camp et al; fuzzy, minimal beats with a strange nostalgic feel created by old VHS samples and loops.
FOR FANS OF: Joy Orbison, James Blake, Yeasayer, Hot Chip
IDEAL FOR: Lazy summer days, sitting in a field, watching clouds. Or remembering days like this. Or pretending to yourself you've spent days like that.

You by Gold Panda
Back Home by Gold Panda
Quitters Raga by Gold Panda

M.I.A. - Born Free (video)

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

To continue the recent very-video-heavy content here on Hitsville U.K., M.I.A's "Born Free" has itself a video. Definitely NSFW and certainly NSFG (not safe for gingers), the video is probably one of the more thought-provoking and uncomprimising of recent times.

Frankie & The Heartstrings - Tender (video)

Here's the brand spanking new video from Sunderland's finest popsters, Frankie & The Heartstrings for their latest single "Tender". A rather awesome tune to match the band's rather awesome barnets, 2010 should be a damn good year for The Heartstings, possibly the best new British band around right now.. I can imagine a million and one Blur fans getting in a huff over F&THs stealing "their band"'s song title. The single, released today, is limited to 888 7" vinyls. I pre-ordered mine, what's your excuse?

The xx - Islands (video)

Adding to what has been an extremely prolific and extremely video-heavy day here on Hitsville U.K., here's the promo for "Islands", the latest single from The xx's imaginatively-titled debut "xx". The coolest/best/worst/most boring new band around, depending on your viewpoint (I'm cemented in the first two opinions myself) and creators of the third best album of 2009, as well as annoyingly being used on both E4's 90210 ads and the Beeb's Election campaign ads; if you don't already love them, you will pretty soon.

Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun (video)

Whilst LCD Soundsystem's video for "Drunk Girls" may be the best of the year, second place has to go to Vampire Weekend's star-studded promo for "Giving Up The Gun". Featuring RZA, Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lil' Jon and the best headband since Solid Snake, it's a little bonkers and completely brilliant.