Shut Up and Play the Hits Review

Any good reunion tour should take note of what James Murphy, frontman of LCD Soundsystem, declares with this documentary title. Shut Up and Play the Hits. Not one person in the audience is there to see the bootleg B-Side that was never released. They want Beat Connection and Daft Punk is Playing at My House. Or do they? Shut Up and Play the Hits is a tense and often experimental documentary that attempts to get to the core of why a band at the height of their powers would choose to implode out of choice rather than out of gluttony and overexposure to the mainstream.

The hurdle now is realising that LCD Soundsystem is back together. If anything, that just adds to Murphy and company, who are sporadically showcased throughout this documentary by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern. Scattershot moments of real finality are explored on the final day of a band preparing to embark on what they truly, truly believe is their final time together. That is scary. The fallout is harsher. Murphy looks completely spent, whether that is through the final show or the realisation of what could be the last time he plays with colleagues he worked with for years. Behind that layer is the need to walk away from fame. Personal needs overtake the desire for professional output.

Moving away from that is an active choice more and more appear to be making, in reserved doses as well as permanent decisions. Ian Winwood’s excellent book Bodies understands the mental toll musicians deal with as Shut Up and Play the Hits does. Stephen Colbert’s rather dispiriting and even cold comments in the opening moments reflect a public attitude that showcases just how little listeners, critics and even fellow creatives understand about the need to hold the line and bow out before the crash comes. Everyone is stunned when a band or artist decides that they have control over when they close a creative stream. It is selfish of an audience to expect more, constantly, forever. Shut Up and Play the Hits accidentally unravels that. It is as much a piece on the worrying intensity of fans as it is a piece of knowing when a project has run its course, albeit temporarily.

LCD Soundsystem is back together, their new tracks are as consistently charming as their earliest works. That may not have been possible before what is, in essence, an extended break. Seeing LCD Soundsystem is the same, primal joy as hearing great music. It is a feeling every sane person strives for, that feeling of elevation. Seeing Murphy understand the emotional strangulation that follows the so-called final concert is a touching and sobering moment. Shut Up and Play the Hits is perfect for those even completely ambivalent to LCD Soundsystem, much like Stop Making Sense is the perfect explosion for those unconvinced by Talking Heads. Nothing is scarier than the culmination of a long-form project. Not just because the reaction draws to a close but because it is difficult to figure out the next steps. Murphy is in the eye of the storm, figuring out the next steps. All roads lead to reunion.