Santogold, Pharrell, And That Guy From The Strokes Sing For Their Shoes

ARTISTS: Julian Casablancas, Pharrell, and Santogold TITLE: “My Drive-Thru” WEB DEBUT: June 9, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: When Santogold talked to Gigwise about recording “My Drive-Thru” for Converse, she said it was “such a Pharrell track,” by which she likely meant that it sounds like it was rejected by Madonna after the Hard Candy sessions for being just a hair too incoherent. At the outset, each vocalist is given their own instrumental cue to let listeners know who’s singing: Pharrell gets a guitar riff that sounds like it was the result of someone playing Guitar Hero on a level just beyond their ability; Julian gets some keyboard-mashing that may or may not have been performed by an inquisitive two-year-old; and Santogold gets cowbell (plus Pharrell saying “oh,” because he’s contractually obligated to do that on every track his vocals appear on). From there, things get more incoherent, with many repetitions of the word “dance”; perhaps egged on by this chaos, or perhaps just the promise of free kicks, Julian actually sounds kind of, well, alive.

This track may result in a few extra-compositional reactions. It may reinforce your feeling that musicians should stick to licensing their existing material if they want to make a buck. Or you may like it, and wonder why the world hasn’t embraced Pharrell as its jingle writer yet. (Imagine what he could do with this Burger King campaign.) Or you could run screaming from it, thus deciding that musicians should just be happy with the piddling cash they get for making their contractually obligated releases. Whatever your reaction, be warned: You’ll probably hear this track a ton if you’ll be attending any Cobrasnake-chronicled soirees in the coming months, since I’m sure this will be on the tip of many DJs’ styluses (stylii?) at many a free-vodka-soaked affair this summer.

WHERE TO FIND IT: Stereogum.

Earlier: Pharrell, Santogold, Julian Casablancas United By Converse