The Chainsmokers - Sick Boy

Pitchfork 31

Trading away the dance-pop trifles of their hits for a faceless stylistic shuffle, the duo seems to be tiring of itself, too.

The Guardian 20

(Disruptor/Columbia)

The penultimate song on the Chainsmokers’ second album would register malign on any timeline, let alone one where the president threatens journalists and musicians keep dying young. On You Owe Me, Drew Taggart scolds the callous media and suggests: “They wanna see me hang on the wall.” He continues: “Check my pulse and if I’m dead, you owe me.” (That aside, it’s the album’s best song, its unusual horn arrangement evoking Vampire Weekend.)

To hear Taggart tell it, he’s a martyr, not half of the EDM duo catapulted to fame on a slimy single and absurd interviews that found him and Alex Pall comparing penises. To be fair, they’ve moved on – or, sensing pop’s shift towards introspective nihilism, moved with the money and scored silly streaming numbers with petulant songs about running off to Paris and having sex in unaffordable cars.