A Multinational Without An Address Except the Party

“Drugs In My Body,” a dreamy dance soundtrack to urban debauchery, broke out of a Maison Kitsuné compilation in 2007 and launched the boys of Thieves Like Us into something like underground fame. From Sydney to Seoul, we lost and forlorn youth of global late capitalism had our anthem for hooking up on penthouse balconies — born out of the heads of an American and two Swedes traumatized by the Berlin techno scene and looking for some disco healing.

Just four years after their debut, they’re not friends with Kitsune anymore, which maybe isn’t a bad thing for a band trying to break out of hipper-than-thou purgatory. “Drugs In My Body,” as addictive as it was, was strange — a party anthem that inexplicably made you sad.

Two full lengths and two EPs later, singer and guitarist Andy Grier’s emo tendencies are rising to the surface, perhaps a legacy of his Army brat dislocation. Keyboardist Bjorn Berglund follows the lead into sensitive ’80s redux while Pontus Berghe, the Swedish drummer, remembers to keep things muscular. Their latest single, “Your Love Runs Still,” doesn’t have the heart-thumping urgency of “Drugs In My Body,” but its plaintive cool has more staying power.

No matter what though, these guys aren’t just making music for the bedroom. You get a taste of their gritty neo disco in this video, where Thieves Like Us perform on an episode of Pigalle, a French TV show about intrigue in the Parisian red light district. The band’s emo disco is a tight foil for the Gallic cheese of “Eyes Wide Shut” meets “Law and Order.” Thieves Like Us are an antidote to modern life’s cheesy, sexy machinations. We need more of that, and even better when it’s still in the key of dance.

Listen to Thieves Like Us, which is a party band in the end, despite itself, in “Your Love Runs Still”:

Photo Courtesy of Thieves Like Us