It’s no secret that Chromatics’ Dear Tommy is near-mythic at this point. Announced back in late 2014, the album was set to release in 2018. We watched as the date quietly passed with no acknowledgment. Over the years, we’ve gotten tidbits of what happened, from Johnny Jewel destroying over 25,000 copies of the album to near-death experiences, which all read quite on-the-money for type of melodrama Chromatics like to deliver. The band even recorded and released Closer to Grey in the interim between Dear Tommy’s supposed completion, scrapping, and rerecording.
Thursday night, the band shared a new track titled “Teacher” and casually dropped the tracklist for Dear Tommy, the album’s first sign of life in some time. Along with the tracklist, Johnny Jewel shared a cryptic message on “the apple,” an image featured on the “Teacher” single art (which parallels the original Dear Tommy album artwork we saw back in 2014).
Similar to previous single “Famous Monsters,” “Teacher” finds the band exploring new dance-focused sounds. With a drunken beat and heavy snare, Ruth Radelet’s siren voice coos about murderous passion (“Teacher, they’ll throw flowers on your grave / Like a leper / Too infected to be saved”). If this was one of the original Dear Tommy tracks reworked, we’re left wondering how the original might have sounded—“Teacher” feels like a distinct evolution for the group and, despite their vintage references, relevant and timely.
Like several of their singles, “Teacher” comes with accompanying instrumental, a capalla, and “on film” versions.
Listen to the track below.
“Teacher” Single Art
Dear Tommy Tracklist
1. Fresh Blood
2. Glitter
3. Never Tell
4. Just Like You
5. She Says
6. The Moment
7. Time Rider
8. White Fences
9. Teacher
10. Between The Lines
11. Too Late
12. Dear Tommy
13. Melodrama
14. Ultra Vivid
15. Colorblind
16. Sometimes
17. Dream Sequence
18. Endless Sleep
