Album Review

Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

• 20th Oct 2008

St. Alban’s trio Friendly Fires have been creating quite a stir over the past year or so since they piqued the interest of singles specialist Moshi Moshi and were the first unsigned band to play Channel 4’s Transmission show.

The frenzy saw them being signed to XL Records and they released their self-titled debut album on September 1st. The album, a mash-up of disco, funk, pop and heavy dance beats is a genre-jumping triumph. Friendly Fires are clearly heavily influenced by New York’s DFA bands. No bad thing. No bad thing at all. The 3 lads obviously have great taste and getting Jape to support them on their UK tour scored big points with this Irish lass.

The album comes across as naturally eclectic and is guaranteed to be filling dancefloors with its euphoric choruses and rich layers of sound. It kicks off with ‘Jump in the Pool’, produced by Paul Epworth. Expect big synths and percussion. The rest of the tracks were produced in band frontman Ed Macfarlane’s parents’ garage. ‘White Diamonds’is an absolute winner with its four-to-the-floor disco beat. ‘Ex-lover’is another stand out foot-tapping track. ‘Paris’- the single that fanned the flames of fame, is now even better with backing vocals from Au Revoir Simone.

In fact, all 10 tracks are ace. The only complaint is that the album is a bit short at 37 minutes. I wanted more. So I listened to it on repeat all day.