"Chinatown" is a song by American

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

act

Bleachers Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row ...

featuring American singer-songwriter

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...

. The song was released alongside "45" on November 16, 2020, as the dual lead singles from Bleachers' third studio album ''

Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night ''Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night'' is the third studio album by American indie pop act Bleachers, released on July 30, 2021, by RCA Records. Background Jack Antonoff began recording the album in late 2019, while the band embarked on a th ...

'', which was released on July 30, 2021. The act performed the song, along with "How Dare You Want More", in the January 15, 2022 episode of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''.

Critical reception

Jon Pareles writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised Bruce Springsteen's guest appearance, saying "Springsteen’s voice appears as if out of a mist, like the apparition of a patron saint".

Music video

The song's official music video, directed by Carlotta Kohl, has been described as "nostalgic" and documents a man's journey from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, mirroring both singers' relationships to the state.

Track listing

7-inch vinyl *"Chinatown" (featuring Bruce Springsteen)' – 4:08 *"45" – 3:45

Personnel

Credits taken from

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. *

Jack Antonoff Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead singer of rock band Bleachers, and is the guitarist and drummer in the pop rock band Fun. He was pr ...

– lead vocals, songwriter, producer, acoustic guitar, bass, drum machine, keyboards *

– featured vocals *Patrik Berger – background vocals, producer, electric guitar, glockenspiel, synthesizer *Jacob Braun – cello *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered recordings such as Gwen Stefani's '' Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' (2004), Rihanna's '' Loud'' (2010), Lady Gaga's '' Born This Way'' (2011) and Drake' ...

– mastering engineer *Serena McKinney Göransson – violin *Mikey Freedom Hart – electric guitar *Sean Hutchinson – percussion *Rob Lebert – assistant engineer *Laura Lisk – recording engineer *Will Quinnell – assistant engineer *Michael Riddleberger – percussion *John Rooney – assistant engineer *Jon Sher – assistant engineer *

Mark "Spike" Stent Mark "Spike" Stent (born 3 August 1965) is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran ...

– mixing engineer *Evan Smith – songwriter, synthesizer *Matt Wolach – assistant engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2020 singles 2020 songs Bleachers (band) songs Bruce Springsteen songs RCA Records singles Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff Songs written by Jack Antonoff