If there’s one thing Canadian electrofunk duo Chromeo has firmly established over the course of their last three albums, it’s that guitarist, vocalist, and French Ph.D. Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) and Lebanese-born keyboardist and synthesizer master P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) know how to elevate tongue-in-cheek humor with high-quality ’80s pop and funked-out electronics. And with this single, the latest to be released in preparation for the group’s fourth album (entitled White Women after a Helmut Newton photography book by the same name), the duo is amping up their signature combination of lowbrow and highbrow with the addition of the dulcet tones of an artist best known for his contributions to the chillwave genre: Toro y Moi (Chazwick Bradley Bundick).
So how does it sound? Well, Chromeo used a recent Reddit AMA to promise that their upcoming album would be “Better, Funkier, Poppier, Catchier, [and] Happier” than their last, and “Come Alive” definitely delivers, opening with a scattering of starry night synths and then transitioning into a meaty funk riff before Toro y Moi’s Hall & Oates vocals inject the track with a dose of relaxed cool. By capitalizing on a looser version of Daft Punk’s recent disco-inspired sex appeal, “Come Alive” proves that Chromeo continues to sound fresh, even when they’re taking themselves (ever-so-slightly) more seriously.