# 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

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.7/10 |
| Metacritic | 84/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| The A.V. Club | A |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| The Guardian | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| MSN Music (Consumer Guide) | A− |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Pitchfork | 9.2/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 8/10 |
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's 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.
Select rankings for This Is Happening :
| Publication | List | Year | Rank |
| The AV Club | "The Best Music of 2010" | 2010 | 4 |
| Billboard | "Critics' Picks: Billboard's Top 10 Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 6 |
| Billboard | "The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s: Staff Picks" | 2019 | 39 |
| Clash | "Top 40 Albums Of 2010" | 2010 | 9 |
| The Guardian | "The 40 Best Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 21 |
| NME | "50 Best Albums Of 2010" | 2010 | 4 |
| NME | "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" | 2013 | 322 |
| NME | "The Best Albums of The Decade: The 2010s" | 2019 | 34 |
| Paste Magazine | "The 50 Best Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 1 |
| Paste Magazine | "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s" | 2019 | 3 |
| Pitchfork | "The Top 50 Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 2 |
| Pitchfork | "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)" | 2014 | 11 |
| Pitchfork | "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s" | 2019 | 52 |
| Q | "Q Hall of Fame: Best of 2010" | 2010 | 23 |
| Resident Advisor | "RA Poll: Top 20 Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 11 |
| Rolling Stone | "30 Best Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 10 |
| Rolling Stone | "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s" | 2019 | 10 |
| Spin | "40 Best Albums of 2010" | 2010 | 4 |
| Spin | "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)" | 2015 | 184 |
| Time | "Top 10 Albums" | 2010 | 3 |
| Uncut | "The Wild Mercury Sound 100 Of 2010" | 2010 | 38 |
| The Village Voice | "Pazz & Jop 2010" | 2010 | 2 |

## Personnel

All personnel and credits adapted from album liner notes.

## 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.

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Gold | 100,000$^‡$ |
| $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||