Know Me

VINYL FORMAT. We were all knocked out by the Frankie Rose and the Outs album in 2010; the effortlessness of its gorgeous girl-pop mantras, the intimate immensity of its Spector-esque walls of reverb, the beauty of a song sung sweetly over the most graceful two-chord vamps. But are we ready for the new Frankie Rose' Interstellar is a revelation, an album that floats free of its maker's history—time spent with Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts—and offers the listener something strangely other, as alien as it is familiar, as compelling as it is enchanting.

On Interstellar, Rose takes the skills employed her debut album— like reverb as the holy route to pop-grandeur, scaling a wall of teenage tears—into a brave new world mapped out over the course of ten new songs. Aided by production ace Le Chev (Fischerspooner collaborator and remixer supreme for the likes of Lemonade, Narcisse and Passion Pit), Rose replaces that reverbed-out classicism with the confident swagger of a singer and auteur building the simplest of pop moves into aching, full-blown melodramas, grabbing hold of an emotion and riding its darker waves.

"Know Me" is the album's first single, a gorgeous piece of widescreen pop, dreamy and driving at the same time. The clean, big hooks bring to mind the best of mid-'80s pop—Smiths, New Order—without sacrificing any of Rose's unique melodic style. It's a single in the best sense: a three-minute gem that perfectly captures the essence of the new album. Le Chev's remix on the flip side is pure 2012—a slowmotion house burner with a tropical vibe and atmosphere to spare. Turn it up and drift away.