Chromeo, “Adult Contemporary”

Can you imagine anything better than disco-laced funk to help you work through your feelings? Chromeo can’t either, and the duo pulls it off with it’s latest album, Adult Contemporary.

This funky, retro-feeling album with modern dance production has Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) and P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) looking at love and relationships, showing how unique they all are and the problems they can create, which need to be worked through.

The duo’s relationship experience shows. They communicate with ’80s-inspired synths and drum machines.

Interestingly, although Chromeo is known for its fun collabs, Adult Contemporary includes just one feature, U.K. singer-songwriter La Roux. This an intimate album. Each track is a vignette focusing on couples in different stages of their relationships.

“Replacements” is about bad fits. La Roux trades vocals with Dave 1 alongside crunchy synths on the chorus. The song portrays the longing and confusion that come along with trying to move on, but the driving beat make it so easy to dance to.

Album opener “(I Don’t Need A) New Girl” is in the same vein; both awkward and bumping. This one’s about a guy who realizes the girl with whom he has history has been the one for him all along–but he’s made mistakes. He professes the errors of his ways while the slap bass drags you into their conversation. Will she take him back? The uncertainty of her answer is reflected with the quick high notes.

“Lost and Found” and “Got It Good” are both celebratory, but the latter is full of with wah-wah guitar and long sliding synth notes, but Dave 1 introduces the slightest bit of anxiety by asking, “Is there something up behind closed doors?” Then, on “BTS,” the best track on the album, Chromeo wraps a critique of late-stage capitalism into danceable love song.

“Though, I want you so bad/ I need to confess/ Sometimes rest can be better than/ Rest can be better than sex,” Dave 1 sings, covering the struggle of a very much in love–but overworked–couple over P-Thugg’s synth breaks.

Chromeo does an excellent job of expressing these emotions with its fun dance tracks. “Lonesome Nights” and “Ballad of the Insomniacs” deals with post-relationship loneliness. “Personal Effects” and “She Knows it (Personal Effects Pt. 2)” addresses the anger and frustration of being reminded of the person you’re trying hard to forget.

Adult Contemporary wraps up by touching on a variety of relationship-adjacent themes, like proclaiming your love to a crush on “Words With You,” codependency issues on “CODA,” and about how some friends are just too close to ever be lovers on “Friendsnlovers” and “Two Of Us (FriendsnLovers Pt. 2).”

The group’s sixth album, and first since 2018’s Head Over Heels, is filled to the brim with well-crafted songs, though the first half of the album is a bit stronger than the second. At least not until “A Cut Above” kicks in. The slower, contemplative song is about growth as a couple, and its softer sounds and reflective tone is a nice break on this dance album.