take a trip to jersey with bleachers in new singles “chinatown (feat. bruce springsteen)" & “45”
By Amy Tang
Since indie-pop act Bleachers debuted their sophomore album, Gone Now, in 2017, listeners have been patiently waiting and itching for another release. With frontman Jack Antonoff keeping his hands full within the past few years having produced various albums from Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! and Kevin Abstract’s Arizona Baby to Taylor Swift’s Lover and folklore ––not to mention starting hip-hop and synth-infused group, Red Hearse — it’s a wonder how the New Jersey native found the time to piece together something for his own project. However, after months of being fed cryptic tweets from Antonoff about taking the sadness out of Saturday nights, we finally have two new singles: “chinatown” and “45.”
Tapping back into his roots, Antonoff pays a tribute to his hometown with heartfelt “chinatown,” featuring the legendary Bruce Springsteen, to which Antonoff reveals in a press release: “It’s the honor of a lifetime to be joined by him. He is the artist who showed me that the sound of the place I am from has value and that there is a spirit here that needs to be taken all over the world.” Between the thunderous chord progressions and soaring harmonies, Antonoff clearly has a way with drawing from his sense of nostalgia and it amazes me how listening to this song can make me miss a place I’ve never even been to (don’t worry Jersey, I’ll come visit one day).
Also accompanied by a music video, directed by Carlotta Kohl, it’s quite possibly everything you could ever want coming from a Bleachers and Springsteen collab. A majority of the video includes grainy camcorder shots of the city, blurry sunsets, and stretched-out highways, but most importantly, Antonoff and Springsteen who appear to be having the time of their lives driving freely in a convertible. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to describe the emotional-richness of the song the way this music video did, and it’s definitely worth the watch.
“45” takes on a more stripped down approach, and is a purely acoustic-driven piece of work. With Antonoff going completely solo on the guitar, the track’s sound is quite reminiscent of his first record, Strange Desire (2014), so who’s to say what else he has in store for the rest of Bleachers’ upcoming album? Regardless of the musical direction Jack decides to take, I’m beyond excited to hear more from Bleachers.