Kill for Love

Although Chromatics have substantially changed their lineup since 2002, their 2012 configuration shows a huge development in both musicianship and songwriting. Now with deadpan chanteuse Ruth Radelet on the mic, *Kill for Love* opens with her demure vocals giving “Into the Black” even more tension than on Neil Young’s 1979 recording. The title track blends Italio Disco flourishes with \'90s-inspired indie rock, as Radelet contrasts a catchy vocal melody with a coolly aloof performance. She looks toward Velvet Underground–era Nico for inspiration in “The Page,” most noticeably when singing “I could be your mirror” over cold, gothic guitars that sound imported from The Cure’s *Disintegration*. “These Streets Will Never Look the Same” taps into every young woman’s desire to be Stevie Nicks, with a muted “Edge of Seventeen” guitar stutter that sounds identical to the original.

Chromatics' first album since 2007's stunning Night Drive is a 90-minute tour-de-force that gives their nocturnal foreboding a new sense of grandeur. Though long, Kill for Love is lushly atmospheric and replayable, with expansive interstitial tracks balancing its impressive clutch of gorgeous synth-pop singles.

Johnny Jewel, the moody auteur behind Chromatics (and the label Italians Do It Better) has a kindred spirit in the director Nicolas Winding Refn, who tapped Jewel to compose the soundtrack for his 2011 film Drive. Studio interference more or less scrapped the collaboration—only two previously released songs appear on…

A synth-drenched tale of doomed passion, Kill for Love nails the baroque melodrama that Chromatics and Johnny Jewel have been chasing for the last five years.

Kill for Love opens with the unlikeliest of covers—a watery, electronic take on Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)."

This is a great tribute to the grueling power of fatigue, an album that turns a dearth of ideas into a virtue.