POLL for love - Chromatics - Kill For Love

"These Streets...", pretty handily

What a monster of a record. Guessing that the first 6 tracks will take all the votes, since those are proper "songs" rather than just interesting soundscapes.

Either the title track or Back from the Grave

Been smashing this album recently, despite far preferring the Ruth vocal tracks I think it might be Running From the Sun for me

Having caught up with more than a few IDIB releases recently I really love how Chromatics songs keep reappearing with different arrangements (and vocalists... or no vocals) - like there is no definitive version

The Page

i love this album so much I can't pick

Awesome disc. Love their Neil cover but vote going to Lady

Voted for Lady too, but I haven't put this album on for a while. Gonna play it today.

Kill for Love 4EVA

gotta be these streets, what a monster of a tune

at your door

back from the grave

The first six songs are so mindblowingly good. Everytime I put this record the mood set by those six alone takes me sonewhere else.

Wish they had cut at least 4 of the second half though, it’s very front loaded and by the middle of the album it becomes too much of a good thing. And now it’s been, what? 6 years of songs being dropped here and there and no album. Making this one 11/12 songs and maybe using the next best 4 on a 2015 followup with songs from that brilliant Cherry EP single and those three 2015 singles from the yet unreleased album have been a better course of action.

Their discography turns into a bit of a mess after this album though... there’s like 6 versions of the Cherry EP and there’s things in there that blur the line between compilation, ep or album or so many different versions of their singles that can be considered demo or remixes... take a look at their profile on discogs and rym and they’re all catalogued differently. Wikipedia has no clue either. At this point I doubt Johnny Jewel himself knows or cares what they are called.

yeah for sure Moka, and then destroying the tapes for dear tommy as part of some spiritual revelation - which seems questionable.

It's an assumption on my part but I don't think Johnny felt the material for dear tommy was strong

Cherry got reissues as 'expanded' and is basically a full album. It doesn't help that he deleted the last chromatics album after some freakout or whatever the apocryphal story is (true or not).

oh yeah Ross just said that.

i thought the story was just he destroyed the physical copies of the album (not deleted the tapes), and decided to spend yet more time making minuscule tweaks to the tracks instead of releasing anything. iirc the only differences between the 2015 and 2017 versions of Shadow were a slightly different mix and a different drum sound

I get the feeling Johnny is on drugs all the time and that explains the chaos surrounding his label and these releases. Some great music though.

possible; just as likely he's just a scattershot perfectionist who has no business running a label. he's perfectly capable of delivering in a timely fashion when there's an outside deadline (as with his soundtrack work)

"who has no business running a label"

they seem to be doing pretty well running this label though so I don't think that's it. He releases stuff, the quality is exceptionally high, their customer service is extraordinary, their packaging is great...I'm hard pressed to think of another label this small that runs so well.

I thought I recalled horror stories re: orders from the label but I might have made those up

there were some issues with m1k3 s1m0n3tt1 scamming discogs buyers with some rare records or something, not IDIB related iirc

http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/04/johnny-jewel-destroyed-25k-physical-copies-chromatics-dear-tommy-near-death-experience

Perfectionism seems to be the order of the day, but yeah wouldn't rule out drug consumption - seems like an impulsive thing to destroy your own music that way

he claimed he did the exact same thing with Kill For Love in 2010 too lol

He can write the songs and he has a fantastic sound but us kids have moved on from that sound, we like artsy R & B now.

simonetti sounds like kind of a dick

http://www.factmag.com/2016/11/02/mike-simonetti-says-johnny-jewel-owes-money/

I've ordered a bunch of stuff from IDIB in the post-Simonetti era and they have been unfailingly cool to deal with and always chucked in little extras - plus their CD releases are cheap as hell - like $3 a pop... crucially, these play real nice in the car

Cherry is such a bitchin tune, that expanded EP/LP/CD/DL (?) mentioned upthread is just as good as Kill for Love IMO

they were surprisingly amazing in concert.

Thanks for the tip re: their CD prices - to make up for my besmirching their good name, I just ordered a bunch.

I'm no great fan of Johnny Jewel's but man does Simonetti come off as sour there

Also title track over "these streets" in the poll

yeah they always stick in promos in the boxes, promo CDs (I just ordered Windswept on vinyl and got it yesterday and they stuck the CD of digital rain in there, plus something else), I got a bonus 12" last time; plus giant posters that I'm never going to put up but are cool anyway. Ruth actually responded to my email asking where the pakcage was when it was mistakenly sent to the wrong address due to some paypal issue.

i always forget how good the back half of this album is. love how the drum sounds throughout this record are pretty consistent, the snare sounds like ESG or something

Having been part of the IDIB "family" at one point and having been in communication with Johnny up to fairly recently I can vouch for his generosity and all around professionalism. This reads like a job recommendation but he's just a good dude and talented to boot. Dunno where all this "he's on drugs" stuff comes from lol.

He can write the songs and he has a fantastic sound but us kids have moved on from that sound, we like artsy R & B now.

And here I thought artsy r&b was on its way out

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i am very excited to see how this turns out

Probably worth polling their covers sometime. Girls just wanna have fun, ceremony, I'm on fire, into the black - all essential. The Kate bush cover not so much

well the kate bush cover would win that one easily so..

Really? Ha alright. Their new order cover is pitch perfect tho

Of those covers, Ceremony is my favorite original, and a damn good cover, but if I want to hear Ceremony, i'm going to play New Order's 1st version. Same with Kate Bush. The cover is great but the original still tops it. Into the Black, however, is bettered by The Chromatics. I have never wanted to hear Neil Young's version, but I often want to hear The Chromatics version. I'll pick Into the Black.

^ fair assessment

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Had Lady on repeat in the car today. Lyrics make no sense whatsoever but no harm.

They are a sort of one trick pony but they do that trick so damn well. They sound really good at this time of year, I’ve been listening to them quite a bit recently.

When you want their trick, it’s so good.