Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones

From the outside, the Neighbourhoods fourth album, 2020s loosely conceptual Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones, may appear to be their weirdest album to date. However, while there are certainly light, Ziggy Stardust-esque sci-fi elements to the production, the record is one of the Los Angeles outfits most accessible, rife with pop hooks and emotive lyricism. Centered on lead singer Jesse Rutherfords alter ego, the silver-painted Chip Chrome character, the album feels like the improbable love child of David Bowie and Justin Timberlake. In some ways, the record brings to mind Zooropa-era U2 as Rutherford plays the love-lorn spaceman troubadour Chip Chrome, ambling his way through a contemporary pop landscape much in the same way Bono filtered his own rock charisma through characters like the Fly and MacPhisto. Musically, the album is just as inventive, as the band deftly move between cheeky 70s space-folk anthems like Middle of Nowhere, slinky 80s-style R&B like BooHoo, and shimmering ELO-esque ballads like Cherry Flavored. We also get the wonky, space-cowboy folk of Hell or High Water and the soft-focus Neil Young psychedelia of Tobacco Sunburst. Equally compelling are cuts like the dusky Silver Lining, with its Fleetwood Mac-meets-Flaming Lips vibe, and Devils Advocate, with its wicked, Michael Jackson-meets-Beck groove. Theres also Pretty Boy, with its moody 60s exotica flourishes, in which Rutherford croons of love in a time when leaving Earth seems like an option we might all wish for. He sings, Even if my heart stops beating/Youre the only thing I need, ooh, with me/Even if the Earth starts shaking/Youre the only thing worth taking, ooh, with me/Even if the skys on fire/Got you here, its alright, ooh, with me. Of course, all of this genre-bending, sci-fi fun would simply be pop theatrics were it not for the bands knack for crafting memorable songs, and Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones is a journey through the Neighbourhoods musical cosmos thats worth taking. ~ Matt Collar