“Chateau”, the second track from Aussie sibling duo Angus and Julia Stone’s forthcoming album Snow (out on September 15), weaves a familiar emotional vein. The song’s pared-down melodies and wistful strain of escapism echoes their breakthrough 2009 song "Big Jet Plane”, offering a faintly optimistic promise of romantic relocation: ‘We can go to the Chateau Marmont/ And dance in the hotel room/ We can go to the Chateau Marmont/ And dance we got nothing to lose’.
As with many of their most compelling songs, the track’s breezy, folksy and unhurried nature belies an understanding of the obstacles that lay in the way of intimacy. Angus sounds world-weary and hopeful on the chorus, while Julia’s bright and airy vocals spell out the sheer necessity of emotional interdependence when living in trying conditions: ‘Living on the outskirts/ Trying just to figure it out /Talking like a deadbeat, I just wanted you to see/ Everything that I could see/ Walking in the night sky, I'm always on your side/ You are really saving me’. The duo join forces in the track’s outro, leveling down the psychological barriers that can stand between people who need each other: ‘(Throw me a bone)/ Don't go wasting your time/ (Don't be scared of what you don't already know)’.
The accompanying music video features up-and-coming actors Dacre Montgomery and Courtney Eaton “getting lost in love in that feeling of running away together” via the open roads in Mexico City. The actual Chateau Marmont in Sunset Boulevard, California, is nowhere in sight: the lovers take a boat ride through the capital, dance in a club and make an unexpected appearance at a wedding that Angus and Julia happen to attend.
