California's the Neighbourhood fused moody '90s alt-rock textures with hip-hop rhythms and electronic accents, launching into view through their first single, "Sweater Weather." That track, featured on the 2012 EP I'm Sorry..., spread rapidly through online channels before claiming the top spot on Billboard's alternative chart and earning platinum status. The group sustained its atmospheric, genre-blending approach, venturing into synth-driven pop with the 2018 release The Neighbourhood and embracing elaborate thematic ideas on the 2022 album Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones.
The band took shape in 2011 in Newbury Park, California, with core members including vocalist Jesse James Rutherford, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, bassist Michael Margott, and drummer Brandon Fried. Their 2012 EP I'm Sorry... showcased early singles like "Sweater Weather" and "Female Robbery," which drew widespread digital attention and cultivated a growing audience. By 2013, "Sweater Weather" reached number one on the Billboard Alternative chart, cementing the ensemble's rising profile.
Additional EPs arrived in 2013, paving the way for the full-length debut I Love You. Powered by ongoing momentum around "Sweater Weather" and the follow-up single "Afraid," the album climbed to number 25 on the Billboard 200 and number five on the Top Alternative Albums chart. The next year brought the long-postponed mixtape #000000 & #FFFFFF as a free online download, highlighted by the single "icanteven" that featured French Montana. In 2015 the Neighbourhood unveiled their second studio album, Wiped Out!, produced by Justyn Pilbrow; it topped Billboard's Top Alternative Albums chart and yielded singles including "R.I.P. 2 My Youth," "The Beach," and "Daddy Issues." The Hard EP surfaced in September 2017 and entered the Billboard 200 despite its unannounced arrival.
The eponymous third album The Neighbourhood appeared in 2018, fronted by the single "Scary Love." Two further EPs, To Imagine and Ever Changing, followed, later collected with the prior Hard EP into the compilation Hard to Imagine the Neighbourhood Ever Changing. The group maintained its output with the acoustic single "Middle of Somewhere" in 2019 and "Cherry Flavored" in August 2020, both of which appeared on the fourth studio effort, the Bowie-esque sci-fi concept album Chip Chrome & the Mono-Tones.
