Chromeo and Ezra Koenig Break Out the Kleenex on ‘Ezra’s Interlude’
So far, electro-pop funkateers Chromeo have teased their new album White Women with a series of certifiably slinky dance floor jams — like the Toro y Moi featuring “Come Alive” and the drop dead sexy, but cheekily neurotic, “Jealous (I Ain’t With It)” — but the duo bust out the Kleenex on their latest cut, “Ezra’s Interlude,” featuring vocals from Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig.
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The cut opens like one of Koenig’s own somber piano ballads, recalling Modern Vampires of the City standout “Hannah Hunt”, with Koenig and Chromeo frontman Dave 1 trading lovelorn lyrics over tickled ivories and distant percussion. A steady disco beat and plucky synth flourishes open up the song about halfway through, but not even that kind of surefire groove can mend the pair’s aching hearts: “I never wanna be the last to know,” Dave 1 sings, “so I guess I’ll just go back to laying low.”
This isn’t the first time Chromeo and Koenig have paired up, with the latter lending his voice to “I Could Be Wrong,” a bonus cut on the digital edition of the duo’s last album, 2010’s Business Casual. Koenig is one of a slew of guests slated to appear on White Women along with Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bundick, Solange, former LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney and singer Tawatha Agee of Mtume, whose hit “Juicy Fruit” was sampled for Notorious B.I.G.‘s “Juicy.”
During a chat with Rolling Stone last year, Chromeo described White Women as “Larry David funk,” meaning, as Dave 1 put it, “a combination of sexy, funky, macho music with neurotically love-torn lyrics.” White Women, the duo’s fourth LP, will see release on May 12th.