Album Review: Chairlift, “Something” (Columbia/Young Turks)

Rating: 89

Chairlift displays a caliber of pop construction on its second album, “Something,” that ensures a large and devoted cult following in 2012, but if “Something” had found a release in the mid-1980s, Chairlift might have achieved the worldwide following of Depeche Mode. This is not to say that Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberley are strictly dancing in a retro heaven, but the Brooklyn duo employ the best elements of classic synth-pop to create similarly great electro songs for the digital present.

Fortunately, “Something” is not just displaying a beautiful surface. Polachek begins opening track “Sidewalk Safari” with a palpable threat: “All of the bones in your body are in way too few pieces for me/ Time to do something about it, if you know what I mean.” Like all great romantic revenge songs, the melody achieves the kind of buoyancy that makes unsuspecting listeners bob their heads and sing along to lines like “I’m bad with bows and arrows, I’m not so good at guns/ poison seems old fashioned, and hired help’s no fun.” Polachek’s ended romance with former Chairlift member Aaron Pfenning crops up again in the more heartbroken “Cool as a Fire,” in which the singer displays her vocal and emotional range.