Prone to releasing one-off singles as they are, the latest from Chromatics, “Teacher,” is not but a mere standalone song, so much as the first bite of the apple from a long-awaited record called Dear Tommy. The stuff of lore, this particular album was recorded a while back, only to be destroyed by band member Johnny Jewel in 2015 (Dear Tommy was reportedly completed in 2014) after a near-death experience that left him, apparently, wanting to create a better version of it. Evidently, they have, for Chromatics even released a fresh tracklist for the long-awaited addition to their discography, topping out at a total of eighteen songs featuring titles like, “Fresh Blood,” “White Fences” and “Ultra Vivid.” Then, of course, there’s “Teacher,” with its arresting, slow rhythm as Nico-like lead singer Ruth Radelet spins us the eerie tale of an educator who sounds as though he or she might have gone too far in certain behaviors.
The lulling narrative bleeds into the neon-soaked video, which commences with headline-like flashes showcasing some of the lyrics of the song. Headlines mimicking those of teacher-student relations that seemed all too common in the particularly overwrought 90s. Or maybe it was just the pervasiveness of supermarket tabloids that made it feel that way. In any case, we all know the duo that set off the alarm on the matter: Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, 12 years old to Mary Kay’s 34 at the time of their initial “encounters.” However, it was even before this revelation surfaced in 1996 that another duo had already one-upped them in 1990: Pamela Smart and Billy Flynn. As a “media coordinator” at Flynn’s high school, then 22-year-old and married Smart (an ironic last name, to be sure), struck up a sexual relationship with him (15 at the time) that led to her suggesting he kill her husband, which, of course, Flynn–with the help of a friend/accomplice–did. The tabloid fodder of these “small town” horrors of the teacher-student divide being scandalously crossed soon trickled into a primary season one plotline of Dawson’s Creek, which first aired in 1998 (the year that the also student-school authority line was well blurred in Wild Things). With Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) taking an undeniable shine to his “Mrs. Robinson appeal” (because any woman out of her twenties in Hollywood is supposed to be a Mrs. Robinson type) English teacher, Tamara Jacobs (Leann Hunley).
And yes, it is The Graduate Tamara so deliberately seems to be renting from Screen Play Video, where Pacey works with Dawson (James Van Der Beek). Playing it up, she overtly flirts with him while renting the video, shamed and regretful for having done so when she finds he’s a student in her English class the following Monday. Pacey, however, is undeterred, pressing her further to turn their spark into physicality. She, in turn, took his symbolic apple offering to the next step. Indeed, it is a white smoky backdrop that punctuates the lusty and foreboding vibes of the apple at the center of the single’s album artwork. The fact that this longtime representation of forbidden fruit is something students started to give to their teachers as a gesture of “respect” seems almost to be begging for some kind of line to be crossed.
It is accordingly that haunting imagery abounds throughout the intimation-laden narrative of the track, with Radelet crooning at one point, “Teacher/Your kiss is like a knife/And I’m bleeding/While you’re sleeping sound at night.” Seeming to reference that teachers are still, technically, the adults who ought to know better and not use their influence and power to the benefit of their own libidos, one could easily imagine this soundtracking the next Lifetime movie about such a scandal (for there will never be a shortage of them when it comes to the limits of this dynamic being tested).
But it’s not all 90s stylings in the theme of the song. The all too Corona-appropriate lyrics, “They’ll throw flowers on your grave/Like a leper/Too infected to be saved,” also feel decidedly now. As though roundaboutly paying homage to teachers (while also slandering them) on their own frontlines the way health care workers are (except, at least, teachers have the safe divide of a screen).
