The tenth anniversary of Chromeo's debut album She's in Control happened a few months ago, and the fact that there were no essays or oral histories commemorating the occasion is a reminder that Dave 1 and P-Thugg have made it a decade without a widely beloved full-length—instead, they're known more for a few great singles and their winking revivalist aesthetic. But in 2014, this works in their favor: with no classic hanging over their heads and no true expectations, it's easy to be seduced by their quietly fantastic fourth album White Women.
One reason why the two have endured (and still kicking on a major label, no less) is the strength of their songwriting. No Chromeo album has ever quite struck the perfect balance between playing it straight and letting irony seep to the surface, but the bedrock of this group is its chops: the ability to write tunes good enough to justify the shtick. Yet, as the shtick has become less important—no longer a selling or conversation point, it is what it is—the songs have gotten stronger, which is clear from White Women opener "Jealous (I Ain't With It)", a song powered by chunky, ringing guitar chords.
In an interview, P-Thugg said Chromeo rejected the riff (written by the production duo Oliver) for being "too Katy Perry", but pop looks good on Chromeo: the guitar-powered first verse slides right into a soaring chorus that's immediately one of the most obviously catchy hooks the band has ever written. Elsewhere, the Toro y Moi collaboration "Come Alive" quickly returns to Chromeo's electrofunk roots. Still, it's not just a classic Chromeo song, but a classic Chromeo song, with rippling guitar lines and plucked bass that give way to a slick, multi-layered chorus.
Though White Women starts in an uptempo mindset, the album's strength lies in its softer, more vulnerable moments. There's always been a humanity behind Chromeo's carefully constructed facade—a sweet, almost fumbling, open-heartedness that allows you to connect with the guys behind the characters—and earnestness has never worked better for them than it does here. "Lost on the Way Home" is a crystalline duet with Solange about always having your partner's back that features a perfect, aching outro; "Ezra's Interlude", named for and featuring Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, is a fluttering trifle that's nonetheless a powerful hit of straight pathos. "Old 45s" is about dancing to a jukebox, and it has a slowly cascading chorus that tugs at your heartstrings along with a guitar solo that pokes you in the side.
White Women is the closest Chromeo have come yet to fully realizing their sound, but it's also far from perfect. Lead single "Sexy Socialite" is retrograde on a number of levels—from composition to worldview, it feels like a leftover from that She's In Control—and its final third needlessly drags. Still, even though closer "Fall Back 2U" rubs up against the six-minute mark, it's still a great song with slicing disco strings and a tricky chorus melody. It also serves as a reminder that Chromeo, even on its most emotionally resonant album, are jokesters, too: the track ends with a sax solo, a vocoder solo and a choir. It shouldn't work so well, but it does—which, in Chromeo's tenth year of existence, also applies to the band's approach.
