1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Acerbic electro-hipster-king James Murphy continues his habit of making the best albums with his third (fourth if you count that work-out mix he made for the shoe people), This Is Happening. Wearing his influences on his sleeve, Murphy, and his cohorts, have crafted a record as classic as any of the Bowie/Reed/Neu! ones that inform it.

While no one song has the punch-in-the-gut impact of All My Friends, or the dance-floor obliterating fun-ness of Yeah, This Is Happening is the most cohesive, of-a-piece record they’ve ever made. Murphy has always used a curious, wonderful combination of minimalist efficiency and over-the-top grandness, so it makes sense that he’d make an album of stripped-down, almost skeletal, songs that are ten minutes long. He also avoids the cheap trick of escalating volume and crescendos that lesser artists would stoop to, instead allowing the songs to take their time, to grow or just find their groove and stay there. His sense of humour remains his secret weapon, showcased in the ridiculous, goofy Drunk Girls, and the eye-rolling, ranty Pow Pow.

If he is to be believed, it may be the last to carry the LCD Soundsystem moniker, which would be a tragedy. Still, if one were to go out, this would be a fairly excellent note to go out on.