Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Shut Up and Play the Hits Blu-ray Movie Review

"If it's a funeral, let's have the best funeral ever."

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater October 15, 2012

When James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem announced in 2011 that the band would be calling it quits, a thousand thousand indie-minded twenty-and- thirty-somethings—record shop employees, bedroom recording artists, mixtape masters, fixie riders, vinyl curators, hipsters if you absolutely must use the dreaded word—loosed a sad collective sigh over the internet. For a decade, LCD Soundsystem's electro-dance- punk has been the backbeat for house parties, the earbud metronome for late night urban jogging sessions, the make-out music for the youngish and drunk and studiously cool. The fashionably grizzled Murphy himself has become a kind of D.I.Y. hero. Unlike the mythic and unapproachable rock stars of yore— the Bowies and Nick Caves, say—he's iconic but also one of us, a husky scruff in a blazer who DJ'd for a while, played in local bands, got into music production, and then started LCD Soundsystem in his thirties just for kicks, with no intention to tour or make it big. After nine years and three albums, though, the band did get big, maybe not mainstream top-40 huge, but massively influential by indie rock standards.

At age 41, Murphy decided to bow out as gracefully as possible, releasing the band's final record—This Is Happening —and simultaneously revealing that their last show would be on April 2nd, 2011, at New York's Madison Square Garden. Tickets sold out immediately, the tastemakers at pitchfork.com provided a live streaming feed for those who couldn't make it in person, and with-it celebrities like Aziz Ansari and Donald Glover mingled in with 18,000-some sweating, dancing fans, all there to witness the end of an era. Like all good funerals, the concert was a celebration of life, as LCD Soundsystem played for nearly four hours, covering a significant chunk of their back-catalog, from their first single, "Losing My Edge"—in which Murphy comedically doubts his own coolness, name-checking all of his favorite bands—to the appropriate closer, "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down," a cabaret-style piano ballad that recalls Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" as filtered through a cynical, post-9/11 view of a Disneyfied Big Apple where "the boring collect" and the "mild billionaire mayor's now convinced he's a king." (Although, it's "still the one pool" where Murphy would "happily drown.") Documentarians Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace were present to capture the career-finale, recruiting no less than director Spike Jonze and cinematographers Yorick Le Saux (I Am Love, Carlos) and Reed Morano (The Magic of Belle Isle) to serve as camera operators.

The Madison Square Garden footage makes up a good chunk of Southern and Lovelace's jubilant Shut Up and Play the Hits, which gives us excerpts from twelve songs—for the Blu-ray release, the complete concert is also graciously included on two separate discs—and shows the band at the height of its crowd-frenzy-inducing powers. This might just be the best concert movie since Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, which seems appropriate considering how Murphy has based so much of LCD Soundsystem's sound on The Talking Heads' art-school- dance-rock aesthetic. Highlights here include "Dance Yrself Clean," with Murphy growling over a thick saw-wave synth line, "Someone Great," with its bleeping electronics, and what's probably the band's most recognizable single, "North American Scum," which features guest vocals from Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem's former tour-mates. Butler actually provides the film's title, which he blurts out when Murphy starts to ramble on nostalgically.

There's plenty of time for reflection elsewhere. In between songs, the film builds to a quiet emotional resonance as it follows Murphy around during the 48 hours immediately preceding and following the show. We see him waking up the next morning, putting on a pair of slippers, and taking his French bulldog out for walk. We see him shaving, slightly hungover, and puttering around his kitchen, pulling a shot of espresso. ("I like...making coffee," he replies on The Colbert Report when asked what he plans to do with his newfound free time.) We see Murphy meet up with his manager, Keith, who presents him with a miniature model of Madison Square Garden on a base that reads "Sold Out." The irony is lost on no one.

The documentary also features insightful snatches of interviews with Murphy conducted by the bearded essayist and pop- culture connoisseur, Chuck Klosterman—author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs—who asks questions like, "When you start a band, do you imagine how it will end?" and "What was the defining thing you failed in?" To the latter, Murphy responds, "I don't know if it's a failure yet, but stopping." This is a man who's opted to give up fame, for better or worse, in favor of the mundane, and he's still not quite sure if he's made the right choice. You might mist up yourself at the sight of the the always cool and composed singer bursting into sniffly tears as he surveys a concrete storage room filled with musical equipment about to be sold off. Is this the day the music dies? The day we all stop dancing for good? Not quite. From "Losing My Edge" on, Murphy himself has always been aware of the younger generation of musicians perpetually coming up behind him, but Shut Up and Play the Hits should tide us over until the next great era-defining electro-punk band arrives.

Shut Up and Play the Hits Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

With Spike Jonze and Yorick Le Saux and Reed Morano behind the camera, Shut Up and Play the Hits unsurprisingly features better cinematography than most concert movies. The film's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation is gorgeous, and since Oscilloscope opted to split this release into a 3-disc set, instead of trying to cram the documentary and the entire 4-hour concert onto two discs, there are no compression issues to mar the experience. Shot digitally using Arri Alexa cameras—and a few DSLRs too, from the look of some of the footage—the concert and interview material is satisfyingly sharp and clean, with visible fine detail in closeups and an overall sense of refinement. Noise does spike when lighting is particularly low, but this is to be expected, and it isn't distracting—or even noticeable, really—from a normal viewing distance. Color is dense and well- graded, with vibrant flashing lights at the show and a punchy-but-realistic quality to the interview scenes. Contrast is right where it needs to be as well; blacks are deep but never crushing, and highlights rarely blow out. The high level of picture quality is maintained across all three discs. No distractions or slip-ups here.

Shut Up and Play the Hits Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

James Murphy personally supervised the film's mixing process, so we can presume that the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track included here is absolutely true to intent. Rather than panning instrumentation arbitrarily into the rear channels, Murphy keeps the mix live-sounding, with the band anchored firmly in the front channels and a light wash of crowd noise and acoustic ambience in the surround speakers. Its like you're right there on the Madison Square Garden floor. The music is dynamic and detailed and has a great sense of presence, especially when you crank your receiver up a few notches from your normal listening levels. Bass is deep but defined, drum hits are crisp, guitar and synth lines slice through clearly, and Murphy's vocals ride comprehensibly over it all. There is a noticeable volume disparity between the loudness of the concert footage and the relative quiet of the documentary/interview material, so you might want to keep your remote handy. Otherwise, there are no issues here whatsoever; Shut Up and Play the Hits sounds fantastic. Do note that the disc also includes an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 track—that hits just as hard—along with optional English SDH and French subtitles.

Shut Up and Play the Hits Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc 1: Shut Up and Play the Hits

• Extended Interview (1080p, 18:48): Additional footage from Chuck Klosterman's interview with James Murphy, who discusses The Flaming Lips, record curating, his worst concert experience and best fan interaction, rehearsal for the final show, and more.
• Choir Rehearsal Outtake (1080p, 4:51): Footage from the all-male choir practicing backstage.
• Swearing Reel Outtake (1080p, 00:17): Seventeen seconds of Keith Wood, Murphy's manager, cussing up a storm.
• Catching Up with Keith (1080p, 10:14): Murphy goes out to catch up with the now-retired Keith in the upstate New York countryside, bringing some audio recording gear out to capture the outdoorsy ambience.
• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:22)

Disc 2: Concert (1:46:33)

• Dance Yrself Clean
• Drunk Girls
• I Can Change
• Time to Get Away
• Get Innocuous
• Daft Punk is Playing at My House
• Too Much Love
• All My Friends
• Tired
• 45:33 - You Can't Hide (Shame on You)
• Sound of Silver
• 45:33 - Out In Space
• 45:33 - Ships Talking
• Freak Out / Starry Eyes

Disc 3: Concert (1:48:15)

• Us V Them
• North American Scum
• Bye Bye Bayou
• You Wanted a Hit
• Tribulations
• Movement
• Yeah
• Someone Great
• Losing My Edge
• Home
• All I Want
• Jump Into the Fire
• New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down

Shut Up and Play the Hits Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Shut Up and Play the Hits is one of the best concert films since The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense; capturing LCD Soundsystem at its peak and revealing the mixed emotions of its 42-year-old frontman, James Murphy, who chose to gracefully remove himself from the limelight. If the film itself weren't enough, this gorgeous Blu-ray set from Oscilloscope also includes the entire concert—nearly four hours— spread across two separate discs, all housed within a classy recycled cardboard case. With sound personally mixed by Murphy and a crisp high definition image, this is an absolute must-own release for fans of the band, and I suspect it may eventually be responsible for some new converts to the cult of LCD Soundsystem as well. Highly recommended!