On their latest single ‘HAUNT YOU’, Chicago trio French Inhaler turn lingering memories and emotions into something propulsive, melodic and strangely energising. But instead of sinking into pure melancholy, the track moves with the tension of something unresolved; carried by bass, live drums and shimmering synths that keep pushing forward even as the subject matter looks backwards.
The bassline sits right at the centre of the arrangement, melodic enough to carry its own emotional weight while the drums skitter around it and the synths widen everything into a darker, more atmospheric space. The result lands somewhere between post-punk unease and synth-pop immediacy.
There are obvious echoes of New Order, The Cure and the broader early-80s moment where post-punk began opening itself up to electronics, but French Inhaler avoid making nostalgia the entire point. The track feels far more interested in using those textures than simply recreating them.
That distinction becomes especially important in the context of Practiced Lines, the band’s debut full-length. Across the record, French Inhaler explore repetition, technology, emotional detachment and the scripts people fall back on in modern life. And ‘HAUNT YOU’ fits that wider idea very neatly; as memory itself becomes another loop, repeating long after you would rather move on.
Now accompanied by an official music video, ‘HAUNT YOU’ stands as one of the clearest examples of what French Inhaler do well. It’s dark without becoming static, atmospheric without losing momentum and nostalgic without simply living in the past.
Throughout, French Inhaler turn the feeling of being haunted into something you can dance through.