Chromatics - Kill for Love (Italians Do It Better, 2012)

Chromatics
Kill for Love

Italians Do It Better

2012

Rating: 8 overdone pot roasts out of 10

This new record by Chromatics really makes me want to get in my car and ride around with the windows down at night.  Is this because they had a prominent song in the film "Drive" and now whenever I hear them all I can think of is old cars, little dialogue and dreamy RyGo?  Yeah, probably.  But still.

I'm pretty sure I saw these guys play back in the early-to-mid 2000s, back when they were trying to be an art punk band.  That version of the band wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  Then somewhere along the way, many years and numerous member changes later, Chromatics turned into the American counterpart to M83.  And it works - it really fuckin' works.  Every review mentions how much this sounds like the soundtrack to a John Carpenter movie from the late seventies or early eighties, and for good reason - because it sounds exactly like the soundtrack to one of those movies.  I love those movies.  

I should also mention that this record is over 90 minutes long.  It's a really damn long record.  to listen to this whole thing you'll be taking a long drive.  They also open the record with a cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My" except they renamed it "Into the Black" which isn't fooling anyone.  But it's a great cover.  Kind of odd to place it as the opening track, but it works well enough.