Shut Up and Play The Hits (2012)

Shut Up and Play The Hits (2012) is a musical documentary directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, that chronicles LCD Soundsystem's last show at Madison Square Garden (New York) on the 2nd of April 2012. 

  (poster for their last gig)

While offering an insight to their last gig, the documentary also reveals - in intersected scenes - LCD's front-man James Murphy, in a 48 hour period after "the end" of one of the most iconic groups of the last decade. During this time we go behind the scenes during an interview conducted by journalist Chuck Klosterman, and we witness how Murphy slowly coops not only with the end of a project, but also a musical era.

This is obviously something very dear to me and you would figure my expectations were high just because of what this feature entailed... But even before I finally undergone this intimate travel, for a long time I was with high hopes for this. The trailer was probably the biggest responsible for that build up. It gave epic proportions to the whole event and having in consideration this would mark the actual end of one of my favourite bands, it was hard not to expect something colossal. Truth be told, the gig itself is amazing and I dare anyone to watch this and not admitting that - even if just for a small moment - they felt bad for not attending what it seemed to be "the best funeral ever". Nonetheless, the more intimate scenes, with Murphy conceding the interview, liaising with his friends and crew and his emotional adjustment, are not spectacular. For you to enjoy it at its fullest, I believe you first need to feel emotionally attached... Meaning, if you are not a big fan, this will come more hard for you to digest. The interview does enlighten you in a lot of things concerning the New York band, but everything else makes this project feel slightly depressing when, at least from what I perceived, the idea was to celebrate their ending. As the tag-line suggests "if this is a funeral, let's make it the best funeral ever".

I still very much recommend it, but rather than suggesting to everyone, I'll just stick to their fans. The gig is superbly well filmed, the music is fantastic and there's pretty good content. Even if you don't know them, you won't feel like you've waster your time, however, if you like LCD Soundsystem... you will take a lot more from the documentary.