Should have known something was up when “The Fuck Is Dear Tommy?” sweatshirts became available on the Italians Do It Better website this week. It’s been the burning question on Chromatics‘ fans minds since 2014 when the album was first teased. Following years of broken promises and enigmatic disappearances, fans might have decided it was time to cut their losses and move on. But then Dear Tommy even had the audacity to come back from the dead. Rumored to be new and better now, yet still somehow the same, Tommy was making promises we were wont to believe again.
How many times can one have their heart broken? They say crazy is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Oh Tommy, haven’t we been down this road so many times before. Why should I believe it will be different for you and me this time?
Yes, that’s right, Chromatics are back to teasing the release of Dear Tommy. It’s the black hole in their discography seeming to draw all else in the cannon inexorably towards it. If 2019’s surprise offering Closer to Grey was being called the band’s seventh release and 2012’s Kill For Love their fifth, could we not still hold out hope that someday number six might walk through the door and be ours forever? Crazy is as crazy does, and we’re right back to believing that will happen…someday.
The new Dear Tommy playlist promises unheard versions of the previously released tracks “Just Like You,” “Dear Tommy,” and “Time Rider.” Additionally, this week Johnny Jewel released a new video for the track “Teacher,” reportedly still the ninth track on the forever upcoming record. Chromatics chanteuse Ruth Radelet stars in this neon solarized fantasy, and the video even comes with a cryptic message from Jewel that reads:
“The apple obscured in fog is enigmatic & open to the interpretation of the viewer. Are we sinking into the unknown or rising from beyond the grave? An apple a day keeps the doctor away & music is the medicine. Our teachers transfer knowledge of good & evil. From the fairytale of Snow White’s endless sleep to the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, exposure is the agent of change. Music is a language communicated by the artist but ultimately defined by the listener’s own exposure to sound throughout their life time. I can’t change my past, but I can choose to break the cycle & not pass the poison apple I was fed to my daughter. ”
Goodbye Teacher. School’s out forever.
– Johnny Jewel
