I absolutely love this album.
I don't want to beat around the bush, nor do I want to talk up outside factors that aren't part of the album proper. I just want to make it perfectly clear that I just really really enjoy it.
Have I done that yet? No, maybe so? I'll proceed regardless.
The first thing that you need to know is that this album is big. It's not just long, time-wise, it's dense. For anyone who is familiar with the output of the extraordinary Italians Do It Better collective, you probably already have a sense for what I speak of. The Chromatics' last full-length album, Night Drive, and the more recent Symmetry album, Themes for an Imaginary Film, both contribute to the foundation of Kill for Love: A blend of post-Italo-disco (let's say that's a thing) pop songs and epic instrumental pieces that walk the line between tense and minimal-to-the-point-of-coma-inducing. The trick, and believe me - they pull it off, is to make every second count. Before we even touch Kill for Love, let's look at "Tick of the Clock," a 15 minute track from Night Drive (and of which an abridged version appeared in the film Drive). "Tick of the Clock," can easily be brushed off as a patience-testing wasteland of a track, it's as minimal as minimal can get in parts of sparse arrangement. But the beauty in the track is that when you are listening to it, and focused on it, you can feel something very epic. From the ambiance rises power - a feature that the creators of Drive no doubt heard themselves.
Save for the last track, the 14 minute "No Escape" (which is currently only featured in the digital version), there is no track on this album that comes close to that level of epic minimalism. In no way is that intended to be a criticism on the new album. The fact is, 5 years after "Tick of the Clock," Johnny Jewel and co. have applied the perfection of that song across an entire album. Every note across the album seems to be in its right place. The track sequence is perfect. Not a single moment on the album is wasted.
The first half is most certainly the more accessible half. "Into the Black," a cover of Neil Young's "My My Hey Hey (Into the Black)" seems almost two perfect an introduction to the album. Gothic guitar chords herald Ruth Radelet's haunting vocals before the song gently introduces electronic textures that carry the song out. It serves as both a stunning work in its own right and a mission statement of exactly what this album is about.
"Kill for Love," is, without a doubt, the absolute star of the show on the album. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of last year's "Midnight City" by M83. Both reach back a few decades for the songs' inspirations and both come off as infinitely more radio-friendly than their other work. Just like how "Midnight City" is even now still drawing in new fans, I can see "Kill for Love" doing the exact same thing, given the chance. Still, while "Midnight City" packs pure energy and bliss into every second of the song, "Kill for Love" takes a different approach, building a song out of more understated tones and rhythms and letting the vocals do most of the heavy lifting.
The second half of the album definitely takes a different turn. After the super-accessible pop gems in "Kill for Love," "Back from the Grave," and even the giddy auto-tuned "These Streets Will Never Look the Same," the tone gets dark and dense. This is the point where I've read where people have stopped enjoying the album. "It's good up through the second half...but I get bored after that," reads a comment in a music community. An understandable observation. After the very loaded first half, the second half requires much more attention to yield the same results. But those results are there for the patient, without doubt.
Take the 7 minute "Broken Mirrors," which floats through some haunted synth padding until it lands on a rather simple drum machine beat that increasingly builds this menacing tension. In another example of the great track sequencing on the album, the end of this song immediately gives way to the haunting bellow of "Cannnnnndy...", thus beginning "Candy."
"Birds of Paradise" is another latter-half gem, awash in the haunted chimes of either a synth or a guitar. "At Your Door" and "Electricity" both seem to draw influence from the same muse that created the driving-at-night aesthetic that brought about Themes from an Imaginary Film. Hell, the track "The River" is actually a revision of a song that originally appeared on that same album.
As I was initially going to say in this review, there is something to be said for patience when it comes to this album. I've been listening to this album at least once or twice a day since it was first released in the middle of last month. Part of it out of adoration of the more accessible tracks, but most of it because I wanted to break open the less obvious moments. I would have to say that it was a success too. From beginning to end, I really find myself captivated by almost the entirity of the album. From every obvious pop moment like "Kill for Love" to the sedated and understated "Dust to Dust," there's just so much in this album that I'm thankful for.
I don't like to speculate on what will or won't be on my year ending music list, especially this early in the year. My opinions can change and I have no way of knowing what lies ahead for the year. That said, as of right now, there is nothing that 2012 has offered that has offered as much pleasure for me as this album.
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