Dear Tommy, Chromatics' highly anticipated fifth album, is still nowhere in sight despite all the recent musical activity from Johnny Jewel & Co. Songs from the album have been teased, scores for films have been produced, an associated act has put out an EP, and an LP of unreleased music, Windswept (2017), has just been released.
Last Sunday, the dark-electro group further entrenched their sonic and visual cinematic influences by making an appearance in the two-hour premiere of the new reboot of Twin Peaks. The band performed a shortened version of their 2015 Adult Swim single "Shadow" in the show's Bang Bang Club; it will also be featured on the forthcoming soundtrack for the series: Twin Peaks (Music From The Limited Event Series). The official music video for the song, which was filmed in the show's Red Room and serves as a tribute to "David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" & The Legendary Julee Cruise", was released alongside their featured episode.
Ruth Radelet's gracefully melancholic vocals spell out another universal tale of unfulfilled longing, a distant lover and the need to be heared. Backed by crystal-clear synths, soft strings and tentative drumming, the Portland-based quartet provide us with yet another sonic portrait of emotional alienation marked by delicate beauty, hard-won resilience and seductive mystery:
'At night I'm driving in your carPretending that we'll leave this townWe're watching all the street lights fadeAnd now you're just a stranger's dreamI took your picture from the frameAnd now you're nothing like you seemYour shadow fell like last night's rain
For the last timeFor the last timeFor the last timeFor the last time'
Lyrics: Genius
