There’s an unsettling contradiction at the centre of ‘Plastic Ocean’. The new single from Chicago trio French Inhaler arrives wrapped in bright synthesisers, melodic bass and propulsive rhythm, yet beneath that polished surface sits the creeping normalisation of environmental decline.
Comprised of singer and keyboardist Ashvin Prakash, bassist Adam O’Leary and drummer Zane Chao, French Inhaler work within a recognisable post-punk and new wave vocabulary. The cool restraint of Joy Division, the romantic melancholy of The Cure and the precise electronic pulse of Kraftwerk all provide useful reference points. Yet ‘Plastic Ocean’ is more than an exercise in revivalism. Its production may look backwards, but its subject is painfully current.
Throughout, the rhythm section remains tight and physical, driving the song forward with the clean momentum of a late-night city track. Around it, the synthesisers shimmer with an almost seductive brightness. The music invites movement, even as the title evokes pollution, suffocation and a natural world overwhelmed by what humanity refuses to stop producing.
French Inhaler appear to understand that environmental anxiety doesn’t always arrive as panic. More often, it becomes background noise: another warning, another image of waste, another crisis absorbed into the daily scroll. ‘Plastic Ocean’ pushes against that numbness by turning the theme into something immediate and memorable.
That approach also reflects the trio’s broader identity. French Inhaler favour precision over spectacle, allowing small melodic details and shifts in atmosphere to carry emotional weight. ‘Plastic Ocean’ demonstrates how effective that philosophy can be when paired with a subject demanding attention.
With their newest outing, French Inhaler have created a track that feels nostalgic without becoming trapped in the past. It draws on the language of early new wave to address a world whose problems are unmistakably modern.
The beat keeps moving, the synths continue to glow, and somewhere beneath them, the tide keeps rising.