You only die twice. Chameleons’ remarkable third act.
As a teen I’d fleetingly heard a few songs by The Chameleons, all of which were devastatingly awesome — “Don’t Fall,” “In Shreds,” “Nostalgia,” “Soul in Isolation.” But I didn’t get ahold of their first three albums until college, and learned they held up to the very best albums that formed the core of my post-punk radio show. How could such an amazing band stay so unknown? Well, Strange Times (1986) did reach #44 on the UK charts. They just didn’t connect to U.S. audiences at the time. Since then, they’ve toured the States many times, including multiple tours since 2021, gaining a new audience of young fans. But it was unclear if they had any new songs left in the tank, with their last official full-length being Why Call it Anything? (2001). After seeing them last year, and hearing their EPs Where Are You? (with three new songs) and Tomorrow Remember Today (archival 1981 songs re-recorded), it felt like they were ramping up to something special.
Mark Burgess renamed himself Vox and dropped the definite article from the band name, trimming down the fat, with guitarist Reg Smithies the only other original member, still peeling off sticky riffs and majestic soundscapes as breathtaking as four decades ago. His opening garage psych riff on “Where Are You?” was included in last year’s EP and was an enticing teaser of even better things to come. This comes to fruition immediately with the second track “Lady Strange.” Vox’s account of a sado-masochistic romance has enticingly gothy ambience, and even more importantly, Smithies’ solo at 3:44 gushes with exhuberance, as if still a young guitar slinger digesting the giddy excitement of hearing John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie & the Banshees) and Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen) for the first time. The euphoria continues with the sweeping romanticism of “Feels Like the End of the World.” It sprawls to the seven minute mark with strings and chiming guitars, and sets the stage for probably the band’s highest potential for mainstream crossover appeal with “Free Me.” They ballad hard here, evoking not unpleasant flashes of Coldplay and Elbow, both of whom probably worshipped Chameleons as youngins. What comes around goes around.
“Magnolia” turns the settings to smoulder, culminating in the chorus “my soul is dead without you.” Yas Vox, I too would be dead inside without Chameleons in my life. The atmospherics get truly epic with the longest track at 8:36, “David Bowie Takes My Hand,” which masterfully pays tribute to the artist and his late period work on The Next Day (2013) and ★ Blackstar (2016). The album concludes with another highlight, the single “Saviours are a Dangerous Thing,” a pointed sentiment that should go without saying, but when wrapped up with such exquisite vocal melodies and guitar licks, we have the best Chameleons song in nearly 40 years. I could say I saw this coming, but I’d be lying if I said I expected their comeback album to be this great.
I relistened to their entire catalog, and while Why Call It Anything has some great moments, the strongest of which is opening track “Shades,” they got lost in the weeds more often than not. Arctic Moon is the album Chameleons fanatics have been waiting for since Strange Times (1986).
