Twilight Horrors

Can dark-electro group Chromatics - under the direction of indie music maverick Johnny Jewel - match the critical acclaim received by  Kill for Love(2012)? Dear Tommy was supposed to have been released in time for Valentine's Day back in 2014, but the music video for its title track was only released on August 24 this year.

Rotating apples, blood-streaked broken glass, a shattered guitar, virginal white lilies, red roses and lead vocalist Ruth Radelet's stoic face compose a cinematic 70s horror-film inspired music video that complements the track's icy, open-ended melancholy. 

The drawn-out lyrics form a repetitive, seemingly futile attempt to come to terms with the loss of a significant other, accompanied by sombre guitar lines that accelerate during the middle of the song:

'Dear TommyJust when I think that I'm alrightI see your faceAnd it only twists the knifeDear TommyIf I could hold you in my armsWe'd burn through the nightAnd wake up somewhere else

Dear TommyI wish I could see the world through your eyesAnd though I've triedYou call me color blindDear TommyI can't stay and I won't goWhat's at the end?No one really knowsIs this our last goodbye?'

Lyrics: Genius

While it's not yet clear if Dear Tommy can surpass Kill for Love, I certainly hope that it will be a long while before I say my last goodbye to Chromatics' immersive atmospheres of moody and stylish synth-haze.