Chromatics – You’re No Good
Bit harsh, we thought you were alright…
[Video][Website]
[5.83]
Ian Mathers: Why must a song be “good”? Is it not enough to sit somewhere dark and hear a beautiful synthesizer, huge?
[6]
Kylo Nocom: Dance music as building, atmospheric sprawls will either land squarely into my thing or miss and land directly into tired tastefulness. “You’re No Good” loops its own mechanical synth designs with knowing elegance but lacking a euphoric pay-off it desperately needs. Only at the bridge is there tension, Radelet singing “stay away” with a breathy detachment over “Strangers”-esque handclaps that lead only to where the song began. Elsewhere, the song meanders into vague imagery and slight electronic plucks all in service of nocturnal vibes that appropriately put me to sleep. Kelsey Lu explored this titular conceit with less said yet somehow more to say.
[5]
Alfred Soto: I don’t quite understand the reputation beyond sunglasses-at-noon types who think Sleigh Bells sully the legend of Jesus & Mary Chain. “You’re No Good” startles, though: the tempo and keyboards suggest the nocturnal early eighties of Quarterflash. In 2011 a breakthrough, no doubt. Now they force me to listen to the words.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: A while back an acquaintance called Chromatics the music equivalent of Jeremy Fragrance, and if you got that reference, you know how annihilating a burn that is, even if Chromatics songs kept being things I was irritatingly moved by. This song — any Johnny Jewel-affiliated songs, maybe — could stand to be more that.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: Italo disco redux, perfectly light and airy like a sponge cake; as per the best Italo disco, it requires and has a breezy female vocal, for which I’m quite glad.
[8]
Julian Axelrod: This is more anthemic and less gloomy than I expected, although it’s certainly not lacking in mood. Everything feels meticulously planned out, down to the synthetic percussion loop that slowly consumes the last minute. But this being Chromatics, there’s no easy resolution. The track warps and leans in lieu of a drop, leaving you dizzy and disoriented and right back where you started.
[7]
I’m lolling at Ian’s comment, because my friend took me to a Chromatics concert and that’s exactly what we did at the Mezzanine. I sat in the dark and heard beautiful synthesizers, it sounded like crystals growing in a cave. I can’t figure out why all of their released tracks have none of that quality, when their concert mix was wonderful.
ian your blurb is perfect and exactly why i like chromatics lmao
Thank you so much, Iris and Claire! It’s definitely not meant as a negative blurb, even though this song didn’t grab me as much as some of Chromatics’ other ones.