Chromatics‘ latest track is a song-length shiver, a bit of icy slow disco that seems to bypass your brain and go straight for the base of your spine.
“I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around” is a perfect continuation of the Italo-disco indebted sound that the one-time noise-rockers so effortlessly switched into on their 2007 album Night Drive. It sounds like an old tune by The Flatmates, slowed way down and laid over a bed of music that actually shimmers.
The track’s video is a pitch-perfect match for this preview of the band’s upcoming album Dear Tommy. The black-and-white clip is all shimmering tinsel, close-ups of vocalist Ruth Radelet and more proof that the Portland band really, really likes blurry detail shots of of guitars. Overall, it’s a refreshing change-of-pace from the gloomy, 808s & Heartbreak homage of the title track and the video is certainly more upbeat than the shattered glass and dripping blood that accompanies that tune.
The band have steadily been dropping singles from their first album since 2012’s Kill for Love. We’ve already heard “Just Like You,” “In Films” and “Shadow” along with the aforementioned title track. Dear Tommy is expected out soon via Italians Do It Better, the label started by the group’s driving force Johnny Jewel.