clubdrugs
lovesick
Artoffact Records
Chicago duo clubdrugs’ take on darkwave diverges heavily from the most popular strains of the style, forgoing club ready electro bounce for a more hazy, guitar inflected sound that hearkens back to 90s acts like Curve and Lush. Their debut LP, the culmination of a few years of steadily releasing one-off singles, is all the better for that distinction; while there are plenty of great hooks and a goodly dose of club-ready rhythm programming, lovesick plays it cool, winning the listener over through sheer enjoyability and considered song and studiocraft.
clubdrugs’ strength is rooted in a combination of natural charisma and good instincts when it comes to how they arrange and perform their material. Even on a song as brief as the less than two and a half minute long “Still Down” you get a full dose of the band’s charms; Maria Reichstadt and John Regan trade off vocal duties in short bursts over swirly synths and chiming bells, the track digging its claws in so subtly you don’t notice until you’re humming along to the insanely sticky chorus. It’s a pattern that repeats itself several times over the course of the record, from the electric-bass driven “Overdose” where Reichstadt underplays her delivery in a way that ushers you into the song’s cool atmosphere before knocking you down with a fresh wave of guitar, to the absolutely stellar closer “Suffer” where the band finally lets it all hang out through washes of guitar noise and pained yearning vocals. Every move they make in performing a song sounds effortlessly correct, and it lends a tremendous amount of pop appeal and replayability to the proceedings.
The icing on the proverbial cake is how deliciously rich lovesick is in both mood and ambience. The dreamy, blissful vibe is surely no accident, with the band seeing fit to include a full ambient instrumental version of the record as part of the Bandcamp release. Which isn’t to say they they just throw some big synth pads or modulated reverbs onto every track and call it a day: the secret sauce is in the vocal melodies and the cozy, intimate nature of the mix. Single “Heart 2 Break” is largely characterized by its guitars and drum machine backbeat, but slowly swells outward until the chorus envelops everything in the stereo spectrum, all the grandeur of shoegaze boiled down to a lovely and surprisingly affecting pop ditty. When the band go full bedroom-eyes on “Disappear”, with its semi-camp whispers and synth arps, it comes across as fun and sensuous, with a retiring warmth that could just as easily have turned crass in less skilled hands.
Honestly, while we were anticipating a quite good record from clubdrugs, we were expecting to be so utterly taken with lovesick. It does so much, while also showing so much restraint – in its songwriting, its performances, and its runtime – that we’d be hard pressed to name another record thus far in 2026 that can match it pound for pound in terms of enjoyment. Truly something special, whose unassuming grace and glamour can’t help but shine through each passing moment. Highly recommended.
