Los Angeles trio Superhumanoids have only been together since 2010, but their latest single, "Anxious In Venice," sounds like they've matured 20 years since their last release, 2013's Exhibitionists. Playful, '80s-referencing synth lines have given way to darker, seething electronics built from the band's realization that their sound hadn't been reaching audiences as they wanted.
"In the middle of recording, we went on tour with Erasure and realized that the songs we'd written weren't achieving the energetic atmosphere we hoped for," Max St. John, the band's synth programmer, says in a statement accompanying the album's release. "When we got home we made the necessary changes to create that energy. We wrote additional songs, we sped up tempos, and made changes to the production that we felt were more exciting."
"Anxious In Venice" pairs its titular subject matter seamlessly. The gloss and glamour of Sarah Chernoff's vocals can't quite quell the skittish, propulsive drum machine and creeping synth behind her. Her whispers and yells, deployed sparingly and impeccably, give an edge to her otherwise sweet soprano. This is the soundtrack to staying out a little too late, or getting a little too lost in an unfamiliar city. The '80s comparisons aren't entirely moot — listen for Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" in that beat — but "Anxious in Venice" exhibits an ease with technology that is distinctly, perfectly millennial.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.