Chemical Smiles is built on one thing. Energy! Okay, it’s built on many things, addictive grooves, structured beats, a wonderful sense of dynamic and a series of intense builds which refuse to resolve as and when you expect them to thereby adding a frisson and charged atmosphere to the proceedings. But it never wavers or wanes in its high octane commitment to the listener. As a song it sits between a dance floor belter and a dark, warped pop song, which is just how I like things to be, neither conforming or trying too hard to jump generic ships, just operating on the fringes of normality.
The starkness of the music, the clinical beats, the staccato nature of the delivery is further underpinned with a video that delivers repetitive and slightly grizzly images making you reappraise just what these chemical smiles are that the song is drawing our attention too.
Ultra modern, wonderfully slick and just weird enough around the edges to get a reaction out of people. Comfort zones…who needs them? Not Ronin that’s for sure.
