This is one of those 7″ singles that I genuinely cannot recall buying. It’s not showing up as one that I purchased through Discogs, and I can’t think, given the mint condition it is in, that I got in a charity shop or in the second-hand section of a record shop. By the process of elimination, it must have been bought as new back in 2010, partly on a whim based on my enjoyment of the first two LCD Soundsystem studio albums, both of which I have long had on CD.
It’s a song I didn’t know when I bought the single. I would have been aware, from the music press, that a third LCD Soundsystem album was on the way, and so Drunk Girls would have been acting as my taster, albeit an earlier single, Pow Pow had come and gone without me noticing. I’ll admit to being underwhelmed by Drunk Girls which then had a lot to do with why I didn’t rush out and buy This Is Happening when it hit the shops a couple of weeks later.
I’ve listened to it again a couple of times in recent weeks and while I don’t think it’s one that is essential for any collection, it’s not nearly as awful as I had remembered. If I had to give it a score, then it would be 5 out of 10.
mp3: LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls
My issue is down to its overreliance on a repetitive two-word shout-along with no real semblance of a chorus, with more than a passing note to the structure of White Light /White Heat by The Velvet Underground. Maybe my expectations were too high.
The b-side was a tad unusual in that in involved a cover version by Wooden Shjips, a San Francisco-based band of whom I know very little but, based on this one song I have of theirs in the collection, are accurately described as a psychedelic rock band.
mp3: Wooden Sjhips – Drunk Girls
The single didn’t crack the charts, but the album did go Top 10.
Oh, and while doing a wee bit of background research on this one, I learned that the video was one in co-directed by Spike Jonze and James Murphy. It’s one I’d never seen previously. It’s bonkers and a bit scary!