Last month, I wrote about Chicago-based electro pop duo Chrissy and Hawley and “My Top Twenty” off their recently self-titled debut effort together. And as you may already know, Chrissy is renowned, genre-bending electronic music producer, artist and DJ, best known for critically applauded releases through electronic labels such as Classic, Freerange, Planet Mu and Hypercolour, his DJ residency at Chicago’s legendary Smart Bar and lastly for his influential, tastemaker blog, My Year of Mixtapes; while Hawley Shoffner, is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, who has developed a reputation locally for writing thoughtful, contemplative lyrics, and together the duo’s sound has been compared to the likes of Yazoo, Pet Shop Boys, Arthur Russell, Kid Creole and The Coconuts, Larry Levan and Patrick Cowley. And as a result, the duo have received public praise the likes of The Black Madonna, Honey Soundsystem, Prince Rama, Skream, Soul Clap and Avalon Emerson.
Now as you may also know, as the story goes both Chrissy and Shoffner are originally from Kansas, which the duo immediately bonded over and they began working on material that effortlessly meshes both of their unique styles into something rather seamless. Their self-titled debut’s latest single “I Got A Life to Lead” has the duo pairing Shoffner’s bitterly and frankly incisive lyrics telling off a selfish, needlessly combative, soon-to-be former lover, with a sleek and sensual production that would make the legendary Giorgio Moroder proud — as tambourine, shimmering and undulating synths, a propulsive motorik groove, stuttering drum programming, a sinuous bass line, a subtle yet noticeable string sample and an anthemic hook to craft a song that’s not only a certified disco-influenced club banger and a great tell off to any asshole soon-to-be former lover, who you’ve gotten sick and tired of and a decidedly feminist anthem in the veins of Gloria Gaynor‘s “I Will Survive” — but while openly saying “I’ve moved on from the foolish bullshit.”
The recently released video borrows liberally from 80s tropes and follows Shoffner singing and swaying along to the song as though she were in a karaoke bar — but shot in a seductive and hazy hues of purple, green and red, complete with views from several different TVs and a brief appearance by Chrissy pressing buttons. And in some small way, the video should remind folks of how deeply influenced the Chicago-based duo are by late period disco and 80s synth pop but while putting a subtle modern feel on it.
