Dear James Murphy,
Are you ready for the plunge into the blood and booze stained Greek streets of campuses nationwide? Are you ready to perform for Tri-Delt socials? Are you ready for the front row douche bag in a backwards baseball cap spitting Red Bull/Smirnoff on your shoes as he yells, “play Drunk Girrrrrrrrrrlllssss”? Are you ready for that same dude to shout “FAG” when your voice is hoarse and you sip hot tea between songs? He’ll do it before you can get “innocuous” off your tongue – that’s how jingoism works. Have we learned nothing from Kanye West? It's career poison to record a song with “drunk” and “girls” in the title.
“Drunk Girls” aside, This Is Happening might be your second best record. Besides “Get Innocuous,” “All My Friends” and “Someone Great,” I challenge you to rationalize a need for Sound Of Silver and songs like “North American Scum” or “Watch The Tapes.” Who dances to songs about being ignorant flag wavers or likes to be reminded about harassment in the work place videos? Call it razor-edged irony, but for those of us unequipped with your dissection of cool, let's call it ruefully wooing young Republicans for two records straight.
James Murphy, you will probably never make another double album of collected singles as stellar as the debut – it's been too many years getting high off conceptualizing disco. I can't be mad, you told me from the jump you were losing your edge. I just never imagined you would give up the good fight so generously. So let's appreciate This Is Happening for what it is. Shoot “Drunk Girls” if it moves and the album's without a song built for radio single format. And then we're left with a radiant disco dance punk that pummels that fucking cowbell and hi-hat into the pleasure zone.
Cheers, captain.
