ABOUT THIS ITEM

With their tracks soundtracking 2011 indie film hit "Drive", and following their two-hour epic inspired by the film as Symmetry "Themes For An Imaginary Film", right now is the perfect time for Chromatics to release a new album.

"Kill for Love", Chromatics first album since "Night Drive", finally gives their loosely associated, prematurely decayed post-punk musical aesthetic its magnum opus - and brilliantly transcends it. The moonlit vibe of previous highlights recurs, and various tracks still crackle and pop with the all-too-mortal degradation of vinyl, and the album boasts some of the most engrossing synth-pop songs so far this year.

"Kill for Love" signals its tour-de-force ambitions from the opening track, a synth-draped cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)". It's a thoroughly rewarding pop deconstruction, setting one of singer Ruth Radelet's most affecting performances against an evocatively restrained backdrop. "Kill For Love"'s clearest improvement over "Night Drive" comes in its impressive clutch of left-field synth-pop standouts. The pill-dropping insomniac rush of the title track is the most likely to propel Chromatics onto festival billings, but the existential ache of "Back From The Grave" is no less gorgeously catchy.

When Jewel suggested in a recent Pitchfork interview that he was more influenced by Madonna than by crate-digging Eurodisco rarities, it was logical to wonder if he was being falsely modest. That is, until hearing "These Streets Will Never Look the Same", which stretches "Eye Of The Tiger"-like guitar tension into an eight-minute treatise on loneliness and includes the album's first male lead vocal, rendered cyborg-like by a vocal harmonizer. Or take the vampire-pallid lament "Running From the Sun", another male-led track, based on piano chords reminiscent of those found on Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time". Still, just as the pop songs on "Kill For Love" are more direct than on "Night Drive", even the record's most ephemeral moments are more deeply engaging than their equivalents on the last album, livened up by disembodied vocals and orchestral touches. By including so many mood-oriented parts, "Kill For Love" paradoxically rises above hazy synth-pop's occupational hazard of dissolving into a blur of mood and mood alone. It's not just a collection of hits; it's an album, one that gives the project's familiar nocturnal foreboding a new sense of grandeur.

CD Tracklisting:
1. Into The Black
2. Kill For Love
3. Back From The Grave
4. The Page
5. Lady
6. These Streets Will Never Look The Same
7. Broken Mirrors
8. Candy
9. The Eleventh Hour
10. Running From The Sun
11. Dust To Dust
12. Birds Of Paradise
13. A Matter Of Time
14. At Your Door
15. There's A Light Out On The Horizon
16. The River

LP Tracklisting:
A1. Into The Black
A2. Kill For Love
A3. Back From The Grave
A4. The Page
B1. Lady
B2. These Streets Will Never Look The Same
B3. Broken Mirrors
C1. Candy
C2. The Eleventh Hour
C3. Running From The Sun
C4. Dust To Dust
C5. Birds Of Paradise
D1. A Matter Of Time
D2. At Your Door
D3. Theres A Light Out On The Horizon
D4. The River