I need to know
And maybe we can talk about
And maybe we can try to solve it
Take me by the hand and take me away
Heartbreak rarely proceeds with literary dignity. People sulk, contradict themselves, make declarations they abandon ten minutes later, and discover that wounded pride is a lousy substitute for company. The same voice that insists, “I don’t need you,” can soon confess, “I miss you.” French Police build their new double single, Super Over Drive / Silver, around that reversal, tracing the distance between defensive solitude and the admission that another person is still wanted.
The release follows July’s Reptile / Japan, the double single that opened the Chicago trio’s new chapter with Interscope Records. On Reptile, Brian Flores looked toward companionship as a possible escape from thoughts he could not quiet. Super Over Drive takes that need into more combative territory, allowing loneliness to sour into anger before Silver strips away the posture and asks whether speaking plainly might still save something.
French Police have spent the better part of their existence making romantic catastrophe sound unusually well-dressed, and these paired songs carry that instinct into bigger, cleaner arrangements without disguising the embarrassment in the words. There is still enough black-clad cool here to populate three basement clubs, but Flores sounds increasingly willing to let the mask slip, giving both songs their peculiar charge.
Super Over Drive runs on a bass line with the stubborn forward motion of somebody walking home at 3 a.m. because calling a cab would require admitting the night went badly. The rhythm section keeps everything locked down while Manny Herrera’s guitar rises, retreats, then slices back through the arrangement from another angle. Flores stretches his phrasing farther than usual, holding notes until the romantic detachment begins to crack. His voice carries composure and panic simultaneously, a useful combination for a song about insisting you can live without anybody while secretly hoping somebody will notice you are drowning in your own apartment.
Directed by Chris Eichenseer, the accompanying video frames the band through a sepia-tinted, abstract performance that feels appropriately unstable. Bodies blur into movement, faces appear and disappear through unusual compositions, and the muted brown tones give the footage the quality of some damaged transmission dug out of an abandoned television studio. It is moody, slightly trippy, and strange in exactly the right proportions, extending the song’s sense of emotional dislocation without explaining any of it away.
Watch the video for Super Over Drive below:
Silver turns the temperature down, balancing spacious guitar interplay, vocal reach, and carefully controlled escalation while leaving more room around Flores’ voice. Here the problem is communication itself: caring without saying so, sensing that something has broken, and wondering whether two people can still name the damage before it becomes permanent. The song carries guilt without theatrical punishment. Its final admissions of absence and need land with the blunt force of somebody finally saying what should have been said weeks earlier.
Watch the video for Silver below:
Founded by Mexican-American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Brian Flores in 2018, French Police—with Herrera on lead guitar and Rolando Donjuan on bass—came out of Chicago with obvious debts to Interpol while steadily developing a romantic severity closer to the international post-punk culture surrounding Molchat Doma, Lebanon Hanover, The Chameleons, and KINO.
At the very moment a major-label deal promises to enlarge their world, Super Over Drive and Silver keep French Police focused on the smaller disaster: two people sitting close enough to speak, each waiting for the other to go first.
Stream the songs here.
Catch French Police on tour! Get your tickets here.
Sep 11 El Club Detroit, MI
Sep 12 The Dance Cave Toronto, ON
Sep 13 Les Foufounes Electriques Montreal, QC
Sep 14 Brighton Music Hall Boston, MA
Sep 17 99 Scott Ave. (Warehouse) Brooklyn, NY
Sep 18 The Foundry at the Fillmore Philadelphia, PA
Sep 19 Baltimore Soundstage Baltimore, MD
Sep 21 Neighborhood Theatre Charlotte, NC
Sep 22 Terminal West Atlanta, GA
Sep 23 The Orpheum Tampa, FL
Sep 25 White Oak Music Hall Houston, TX
Sep 26 Aztec Theatre San Antonio, TX
Sep 27 Trees Dallas, TX
Sep 29 Sister Albuquerque, NM
Sep 30 Lowbrow Palace El Paso, TX
Oct 1 The Van Buren Phoenix, AZ
Oct 2 The Portal at Area 15 Las Vegas, NV
Oct 3 Riverside Municipal Auditorium Riverside, CA
Oct 4 House of Blues – Anaheim Anaheim, CA
Oct 7 August Hall San Francisco, CA
Oct 9 The Crocodile Seattle, WA
Oct 10 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR
Oct 13 Metro Music Hall Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 15 The Oriental Theatre Denver, CO
Oct 17 The Pinnacle Nashville, TN
Oct 18 Ramova Theatre Chicago, IL
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The post Chicago Post-Punk Trio French Police Release Videos for “Super Over Drive” and “Silver” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.