So much ink has been spilled all over the world about this album in the last three years. The crazy thing is, “Night Drive” as we know it was never meant to be officially released. Originally intended only to be the cdr demo version of the incomplete album burned for a handfull of dates in California. That was the end of summer 2007. At that time, Chromatics was mostly unknown throughout the world. With only a handfull of bootlegged demos floating through the ethernet, the music was far off the radar of the music industry. No one had any clue what was around the corner. Soon the press would get ahold of it, & the album would spread like wildfire overnight. The rough mix was done in Portland on a lunar eclipse the night before Chromatics left for their first leg of performances with new singer Ruth Radelet. The record opens at the end of a long night with our heroine making a phone call to her lover. He asks her to pick up a bottle of wine. In the distance through the muffled walls of a sweaty nightclub you can hear the dj’s closing their set with the Mirage banger, “Lady Operator.” She drives to the coast to clear her head. Gripping the wheel with the throb of “Night Drive” she takes control. As the hi hat attacks your speakers, her hair blows in the breeze. This is the opening of the record that continues to define Chromatics’ unique sound. The extreme juxtaposition of raw frailty against jagged violence. Feeling out of place & dead with no reflection, they question the line between birth & mortality in songs like “I Want Your Love” & “Mask.” The music is drenched in reverb echoeing the death of hope & the price of nostalgia. The most powerful example of this is their daring take on the Kate Bush classic, “Running Up That Hill,” a favorite amongst fans & critics alike. Chromatics has been closing their captivating live sets with this song every night. With ethereal songs like “Tomorrow Is So Far Away,” “Tick Of The Clock,” & “Let’s Make This A Moment To Remember,” they give the listener the space to breathe. We get a glimpse of their chequered past with the post punk sheen of Joy Division on “Healer”. The lost side of the album is dark & abstract. Opening with the almost funerial “Shining Violence”. Where detuned analog synths collide & struggle to hang onto a fading melody. Followed by the sleeper hit, “Circled Sun”, & the Vangelis inspired reflection of life’s duality in “The Gemini”. Looking into a broken mirror, Ruth is more vulnerable than ever with the bare bones bass & vocal of “Bell”. “Night Drive” closes with an arpeggiated musical refrain from the beginning of Side One. “Acelerator” reinterprates elements of “Night Drive’s” chord progression while leaning heavily on the gear shift. As painted lines in the road begin to strobe, Chromatics propels full speed ahead into an uncertain future.