On October 1, 2019, the Italians Do It Better website was updated to show a new Chromatics album, albeit with the album and track names obscured. Upon the album's release in New Zealand, the album title was revealed to be "Closer to Grey", and the album title and track names were officially announced worldwide. The album was released on October 2, 2019. The band stated through their Instagram account that "Closer to Grey" did not contain any material from "Dear Tommy", and that the latter album would still be released, with no release date announced.