Artistic Post-Punk and Romantic Synthpop in Take Me With You’s “Stranger”

Raise a plastic glass

Graceful angel, how’ve you been?

Pittsburgh’s Take Me With You earnestly connects with others in times of crisis, both on the personal and global levels, with their glorious new track, Stranger. The band’s operatic sound hovers somewhere between romantic New Wave and the mournful cries of Cathy’s ghost howling over the misty moors, but accompanied with plucked violins and shimmering synths over electrofunk drums. It’s at once gentle and fierce; mournful and cautiously optimistic.

Drawing on both ’80s alternative music and contemporary darkwave dance, Take Me With You revives lost motifs of pop songcraft to speak to others isolated in the modern world. Independently releasing music since 2017, Take Me With You released the full-length a building, a dreaming in 2019. They have performed with Men Without Hats and Gene Loves Jezebel with Jay Aston, as well as contemporary synthwave artist Betamaxx. In 2019, they performed songs by The Psychedelic Furs as the closing act of Pittsburgh’s annual TributeFest.

Stranger was written in the fall of 2019, but recorded during social distancing, as each musician isolated within their private spaces. “The video invites the viewer to watch the band watching each other, providing a window into a place both distanced and intimate,” says Take Me With You. Keyboardist Leslie, vocalist Elizabeth, drummer Thomas and bassist Jessie each share stark self-shot footage that is gradually layered into a dreamlike density. It is a magnificent, creative testament to the tenacity of artists in lockdown, and an interesting time capsule for the era of Covid.

While Stranger depicts a restrained, sun-lit exterior, the single’s flip side, Aluminum, releases a “primal interior voice beckoning the listener into a dark post-punk dance-floor groove of hypnotic industrial clanging and hazy atmosphere.”

Watch the video for “Stranger” below:

“Stranger” is out now. Order Here