Chromatics teases audiences with the new single “Shadow,” yet another lead to its unreleased album Dear Tommy. The band claimed to have finished the double LP in April. Perhaps the release of “Shadow,” the fourth track from it, is a harbinger of the album’s upcoming premiere.
Band member Johnny Jewel offered some insight to tide fans over.
Everyone has a shadow. There is no real difference between ten years ago and ten seconds ago. Your future determines your past. The flame of nostalgia is a tempting black hole to jump into, but I recognize it as a fantasy.
Romance is brave. So is simplicity. Love is a call to war. Why wouldn’t you want to respect music? Dear Tommy is the most rebellious record I’ve made.
And the track surely starts out with a trenchant, powerful kick before Ruth Radelet’s softly stoic vocals come into play. As she repeats “For the last time” in the chorus and sets up dichotomies between perception and real time, it’s not difficult to make the connection with Jewel’s statement regarding the attraction but ultimate danger of nostalgia.
