| Chromatics ÷ Kill for Love (2012) |
Chromatics ÷ Kill for Love
Location: Portland, Oregon
Album release: March 26, 2012
Record Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION / Italians Do It Better
Runtime: 91:34
Tracklist:
01. "Into the Black" Neil Young 5:23
02. "Kill for Love" Adam Miller, John David V 3:58
03. "Back from the Grave" V 3:43
04. "The Page" Miller, Ruth Radelet, V 3:36
05. "Lady" V 5:08
06. "These Streets Will Never Look the Same" Miller, V 8:37
07. "Broken Mirrors" Nat Walker, V 7:04
08. "Candy" Miller, V 2:30
09. "The Eleventh Hour" V 3:28
10. "Running from the Sun" Miller, V 7:07
11. "Dust to Dust" Miller, V 2:41
12. "Birds of Paradise" Miller, Radelet, V 4:26
13. "A Matter of Time" V 5:06
14. "At Your Door" Miller, V 3:53
15. "There's a Light Out on the Horizon" Walker, V 4:45
16. "The River" Miller, V 6:10
Total length: 77:35
iTunes bonus track:
17. "No Escape" 14:00
Total length: 91:35
Members:
≡ Johnny Jewel - producer, multi-instrumental
≡ Ruth Radelet - singer
≡ Adam Miller - guitar
≡ Nat Walker - drumms
Past members: Hannah Blilie, Devin Welch, Michelle Nolan, Maximillion Ronald Avila, Nat Sahlstrom, Nate Preston, Aleesha Whitley, Chelsea Mosher
Web: http://vivaitalians.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CHROMATICSBAND
◊ 2012 release, the fourth studio album from the Portland-based Electronic band. The band may already be a decade old, but Kill For Love breathes new life into their Electro Pop sound.
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BBC Review:
A movie-length fourth LP from the Oregon outfit, and little short of breathtaking.
Alex Denney 2012-06-07
◊ On 2007’s Night Drive album, Oregon outfit Chromatics’ jump from noisy no-wavers to synth-pop sophisticates was as bold as it was terrifically executed. What’s more, their svelte harking back to Giorgio Moroder and Arthur Russell prefigured the indie set’s move towards Sapphic electronic textures at the close of the decade, and helped make the Italians Do It Better label a going hipster concern.
≡ If the line’s gone dead since then, that’s because Kill for Love comes with a bit of a knotty back-story. In short, Jewel was approached about soundtracking the superlative Ryan Gosling vehicle Drive, and composed a score only to learn the job had been given to Cliff Martinez. Some of Jewel’s material was reworked on Music for an Imaginary Film, a sprawling collaboration with Chromatics drummer Nat Walker recorded under the name of Symmetry and released last December.
≡ That might seem like a slight return after five years away, but Kill for Love should go a long way to easing concerns. The band’s fourth album extends to a movie-worthy runtime, offering evidence that Jewel is using an increasingly filmic canvas even with the day job.
◊ The results are little short of breathtaking. With its lonesome, auto-tuned vocals poured longingly over a slow disco beat, These Streets Will Never Look the Same sounds like Gaspar Noé’s ghostly skycam that stalks the city rooftops in Enter the Void. A subtle transfiguration of Neil Young’s Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) continues their run as a fine covers band (check their takes on Kate Bush and Bruce Springsteen tracks if you haven’t already).
≡ The title track offers one of the record’s most conventionally pop moments by way of M83-ish bloops and an unusually exuberant, New Order-like melody line. Likewise, Lady slides like cityscape reflections over the windshield and boasts production worthy of Fever Ray’s still awesome debut, though the intentions may be different. Both are capably handled by singer Ruth Radelet, who is skilled at letting just a whisker of emotion shine through her blank-electro facade.
≡ The band sounds equally at home on extended ambient pieces like the darkly pulsing Broken Mirrors, and the sodium-streetlamp haze of gorgeous slow numbers like The River. Most pleasingly of all, while the record works just fine as an ad for Jewel’s considerable soundtrack smarts, Kill for Love is also one of the finest records to surface this year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Joe Davies (http://www.amazon.com)
◊ Chromatics might sound like a color scheme to most, but if you've watched cool-headed, stuntman turned hero film Drive, then there's no doubt that your ears have experienced the smooth, analog-textured synth pop of Portland's very own. With their most recent 90-minute release, Kill For Love, Chromatics have soared into the indie scene as one of the leaders of the new Italo disco movement, formulating a sound combining vintage 80s synthesizers and arpeggiators layered with crisp guitar melodies and backing bass. With a heavy presence of reverb, the dreamy yet chilling voice of Ruth Radelet, and a constant loop of a classic crackle and pop from an old vinyl, Kill For Love is their most visionary effort to date. While tracks such as "The Page" and "Back from the Grave" standout as the most poppy and major-chord oriented, it's the 8-minute instrumental, "Broken Mirrors," that loses you in its cryptic, steadily rising mix of single note strings and thickly stroked guitar sections. Composed and engineered by Glass Candy's Johnny Jewel, who has been on the Chromatics lineup for the past two albums, Kill for Love will keep any synth lover yearning for more.
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| Review scores |
| Source |
Rating |
| The A.V. Club |
C+ |
| Consequence of Sound |
  |
| Drowned in Sound |
9/10 |
| Now |
4/5 |
| The Phoenix |
|
| Pitchfork Media |
8.7/10 |
| PopMatters |
8/10 |
| Slant Magazine |
 |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |
|
| Under the Radar |
  |
| Chromatics ÷ Kill for Love (2012) |
Chromatics ÷ Kill for Love
Location: Portland, Oregon
Album release: March 26, 2012
Record Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION / Italians Do It Better
Runtime: 91:34
Tracklist:
01. "Into the Black" Neil Young 5:23
02. "Kill for Love" Adam Miller, John David V 3:58
03. "Back from the Grave" V 3:43
04. "The Page" Miller, Ruth Radelet, V 3:36
05. "Lady" V 5:08
06. "These Streets Will Never Look the Same" Miller, V 8:37
07. "Broken Mirrors" Nat Walker, V 7:04
08. "Candy" Miller, V 2:30
09. "The Eleventh Hour" V 3:28
10. "Running from the Sun" Miller, V 7:07
11. "Dust to Dust" Miller, V 2:41
12. "Birds of Paradise" Miller, Radelet, V 4:26
13. "A Matter of Time" V 5:06
14. "At Your Door" Miller, V 3:53
15. "There's a Light Out on the Horizon" Walker, V 4:45
16. "The River" Miller, V 6:10
Total length: 77:35
iTunes bonus track:
17. "No Escape" 14:00
Total length: 91:35
Members:
≡ Johnny Jewel - producer, multi-instrumental
≡ Ruth Radelet - singer
≡ Adam Miller - guitar
≡ Nat Walker - drumms
Past members: Hannah Blilie, Devin Welch, Michelle Nolan, Maximillion Ronald Avila, Nat Sahlstrom, Nate Preston, Aleesha Whitley, Chelsea Mosher
Web: http://vivaitalians.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CHROMATICSBAND
◊ 2012 release, the fourth studio album from the Portland-based Electronic band. The band may already be a decade old, but Kill For Love breathes new life into their Electro Pop sound.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC Review:
A movie-length fourth LP from the Oregon outfit, and little short of breathtaking.
Alex Denney 2012-06-07
◊ On 2007’s Night Drive album, Oregon outfit Chromatics’ jump from noisy no-wavers to synth-pop sophisticates was as bold as it was terrifically executed. What’s more, their svelte harking back to Giorgio Moroder and Arthur Russell prefigured the indie set’s move towards Sapphic electronic textures at the close of the decade, and helped make the Italians Do It Better label a going hipster concern.
≡ If the line’s gone dead since then, that’s because Kill for Love comes with a bit of a knotty back-story. In short, Jewel was approached about soundtracking the superlative Ryan Gosling vehicle Drive, and composed a score only to learn the job had been given to Cliff Martinez. Some of Jewel’s material was reworked on Music for an Imaginary Film, a sprawling collaboration with Chromatics drummer Nat Walker recorded under the name of Symmetry and released last December.
≡ That might seem like a slight return after five years away, but Kill for Love should go a long way to easing concerns. The band’s fourth album extends to a movie-worthy runtime, offering evidence that Jewel is using an increasingly filmic canvas even with the day job.
◊ The results are little short of breathtaking. With its lonesome, auto-tuned vocals poured longingly over a slow disco beat, These Streets Will Never Look the Same sounds like Gaspar Noé’s ghostly skycam that stalks the city rooftops in Enter the Void. A subtle transfiguration of Neil Young’s Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) continues their run as a fine covers band (check their takes on Kate Bush and Bruce Springsteen tracks if you haven’t already).
≡ The title track offers one of the record’s most conventionally pop moments by way of M83-ish bloops and an unusually exuberant, New Order-like melody line. Likewise, Lady slides like cityscape reflections over the windshield and boasts production worthy of Fever Ray’s still awesome debut, though the intentions may be different. Both are capably handled by singer Ruth Radelet, who is skilled at letting just a whisker of emotion shine through her blank-electro facade.
≡ The band sounds equally at home on extended ambient pieces like the darkly pulsing Broken Mirrors, and the sodium-streetlamp haze of gorgeous slow numbers like The River. Most pleasingly of all, while the record works just fine as an ad for Jewel’s considerable soundtrack smarts, Kill for Love is also one of the finest records to surface this year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Joe Davies (http://www.amazon.com)
◊ Chromatics might sound like a color scheme to most, but if you've watched cool-headed, stuntman turned hero film Drive, then there's no doubt that your ears have experienced the smooth, analog-textured synth pop of Portland's very own. With their most recent 90-minute release, Kill For Love, Chromatics have soared into the indie scene as one of the leaders of the new Italo disco movement, formulating a sound combining vintage 80s synthesizers and arpeggiators layered with crisp guitar melodies and backing bass. With a heavy presence of reverb, the dreamy yet chilling voice of Ruth Radelet, and a constant loop of a classic crackle and pop from an old vinyl, Kill For Love is their most visionary effort to date. While tracks such as "The Page" and "Back from the Grave" standout as the most poppy and major-chord oriented, it's the 8-minute instrumental, "Broken Mirrors," that loses you in its cryptic, steadily rising mix of single note strings and thickly stroked guitar sections. Composed and engineered by Glass Candy's Johnny Jewel, who has been on the Chromatics lineup for the past two albums, Kill for Love will keep any synth lover yearning for more.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------