Night Drive

iTunes Review

Listening to Night Drive, it’s hard not to think of the Chromatics’ Italians Do It Better labelmates Glass Candy, and it turns out that the two outfits share a member, producer Johnny Jewel. Even though Jewel provides tracks for both projects, the groups differ somewhat. Here, guitarist Adam Miller adds catchy guitar that pushes the music toward rock and Ruth Radelet’s vocals possess a more straightforward appeal than the subtly strange singing of Glass Candy’s Ida No. On “I Want Your Love,” Radelet intones lines like “I’ll see through glass/I’ll scrape the sky” as if she’s in a trance. That’s understandable since the prickly guitar and insistent high-hat can put you in that pleasant state. The band has the chutzpah to cover the 1980s Kate Bush classic, “Running Up That Hill,” and they pull it off. The Chromatics’ put their own stamp on the song with a version that's both streamlined and hazy; imagine a mysterious car trip through a dreamscape of your choice. Night Drive closes with the lengthy minimal track, “Tick of the Clock,” a hypnotic instrumental that nicely drops you off after an intriguing musical ride.