††† - Initiation / Protection (10") - 45RPM

Crosses didn’t just slip back into the room. With Initiation / Protection, the duo of Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez flipped the lights to a moody violet and let the low end do the talking. Released March 18, 2022 on Warner Records, the double A-side is the moment this project truly reawakened after years of silence, and you can hear the thrill of being back in motion in every throb of synth and every haloed vocal.

Initiation hits first, and it’s the one you feel in your chest. Lopez stacks a kick that lands like a club door shutting, then threads glittering keys through a haze of guitar that doesn’t want to be recognized as guitar. Moreno rides the pulse with a careful hush, then lifts into the chorus where devotion starts to sound like a hex. It’s pop built from dark materials. Think Depeche Mode’s icy romance, but wired to a more modern, bass forward chassis. The mix is surgical. Nothing is wasted. Even the tiny percussive clicks feel like they were placed with tweezers.

Protection changes the temperature. The drums tick like a bedside clock, the synths bloom slowly, and Moreno leans into the tender, slightly haunted register that made the 2014 Crosses LP so addictive. There is a sweetness to the melody, but the edges still glow red. Protection plays like the late hour confession to Initiation’s ritual. Side by side they map the corners of what Crosses do best, the way they twist heavy music instincts into nocturnal pop songs that feel intimate and enormous at the same time.

Part of the pleasure here is how recognizably Lopez the production is. He has a knack for disguising guitars as vapor, tucking them under pads until they ghost the rhythm instead of crowding it. The sub frequencies have weight but never smear the stereo field. Moreno, for his part, sings like someone who knows how powerful restraint can be. He gives you air and implication, which makes the rushes of harmony land harder. These songs don’t posture. They lure.

Context matters with a release like this. Initiation / Protection marked the first original Crosses material since the self titled 2014 album, not counting the 2020 cover detours that kept the engine warm. The timing turned a lot of heads. Coverage from places like Stereogum, NME, and Revolver made it clear the project’s return wasn’t a curiosity. It was a real shift back into focus, a signal that led directly to the Permanent.Radiant EP at the end of 2022. You can hear the connective tissue. The gleam of Initiation shows up in later singles like Vivien, and Protection’s after-hours mood becomes a through line for the EP.

If you collect ††† vinyl, this single sits in a sweet spot. The production is built for physical playback, all velvet synths and pressure system bass that opens up when a needle hits wax. The Initiation / Protection vinyl tends to pass through shops quickly, which only adds to the thrill of finding it in the wild. I’ve seen copies tucked between Nine Inch Nails reissues and a stack of coldwave comps at my local, and it felt right at home there. If you’re crate digging in a Melbourne record store, or skimming vinyl records Australia listings late at night, this is one to grab on sight. And if you prefer to buy ††† records online, keep an eye on official channels since drops come and go without much warning. It also pairs nicely with other ††† albums on vinyl if you’re building a tidy little run for the shelf.

No Crosses release lands without some sense of theater, and the visuals around Initiation leaned into that charged, neon noir world they’ve been sketching since day one. The aesthetics aren’t window dressing. They reflect the architecture of the songs, the way desire and dread share the same hallway. That’s the trick here. These two tracks feel sleek and immediate, but they leave scuff marks on the heart.

I tend to file Initiation / Protection next to HEALTH, Depeche Mode, and Massive Attack, records that make darkness sound inviting. It’s a tight, focused reintroduction from a band that understands the power of two songs executed with zero wasted motion. Put it on late, lights low, and let the room shift around you.