Songbook: Night By Night

Chromeo - Night By Night (2011) [Original Post (Day 119)]

Secret Sounds: Night by Night

Chromeo - Night by Night (Live on The Late Show/2010)

New music that really grabs me is so rare these days, I tend to become somewhat obsessed by any track that tickles my fancy. Such has been the case since seeing Montreal based electrofunk double-act, Chromeo, who appeared recently on The Late Show with David Letterman performing their single, Night by Night. The eighties-infused track comes from their new album, Business Casual, and is my first really conscious introduction to them.

One of my largest quibbles with the pop music scene right now is it's insincere and shallow plundering of the pop eighties. The machine of the music industry has never felt colder in it's soulless appropriation of the past, despite the fact that we're on the other-end of nineties boy bands, and that it was the eighties that gave us this manufcatured pop in the first place.

In the nineties, I actually dared to miss the synth sound of the decade before, regularly wondering why it hadn't been kept alive adjacent to the movements relevant to that period. I suppose it's that fondness that has kept me open-minded enough to be receptive to the likes of Chromeo, whose sound feels honest, warm, and sincere.

Bounce back to 2004 and Chromeo's debut album, She's In Control, and you can see where that sincerity comes from. Drum machines and retro hip hop breakbeats were there ahead of the curve, blending into a sound just referencially post to the same distance as they were to the funkier side of acts like 2001's Daft Punk (Discovery).
Night by Night, for my money, strikes a more memorable pop chord, swelling with the production of 2010 to be the electro soundtrack to a hundred summer nights.

The only real complaint I have about this song is the fact that I've heard their live take on Letterman! It doesn't happen often, but the live version is just a bit better than the album, which slides through it's chorus with a little too much polish in the mix! Check out the vid and see what you think!

Love the (trademark) keyboard legs, and bonus points to Dave 1 for trading geek for chic in the live show with designer stubble and sunglasses at night! If you don't have this running through your head by the weekend, you can have your money back!