Altsounds - Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires [Album]

The debut album from the indie dance rock outfit Friendly Fires is an absolute hum-dinger of a record. All the right material is in each track, layer after layer of beautiful harmonies, funky bass-lines and one hell of a lead vocalist. Upon hearing about this band, my expectations were a heavily influenced new-wave band, but I as wrong. Finally, something refreshing in the NME music limelight has gotten the recognition it deserves. Band members Edward Macfarlane, Jack Savidge and Edward Gibson have worked hard on this 10 track record, writing and producing most of the tracks. This album works, it really does. Playing this record over and over never gets tiring.

Track one ‘Jump In The Pool’ is an incredible track. It has a very basic structure, verse chorus, verse chorus etc. It opens with a vocal harmony that (when played very loud) makes your hairs stand on end. The concoction of harmonies and delays sends you to a place you will definitely want to re-visit. Track three is their highly anticipated single ‘Paris’ (set to be released at the start of November). This again is a very cool song, with added vocals from Au Revoir Simone, providing an atmospheric Zero 7 approach.

This band is cool, I mean really cool. They manage to mix several styles into one epic buffet of indie-electro-synth madness. They will make you dance, cry, laugh and maybe even give you a happy ending (did I just type that?). Their material is unique, their influences are hard to figure out and most of all they will be around for a while.

MySpace.com - Friendly Fires - St Albans, UK - Pop / Disco House / Shoegaze - www.myspace.com/friendlyfires

Tracks to listen to:
‘Jump In The Pool’
‘Paris’
‘Strobe’
‘Ex Lover’

Tracks:
1. Jump In The Pool
2. In The Hospital
3. Paris
4. White Diamonds
5. Strobe
6. On Board
7. Lovesick
8. Skeleton Boy
9. Photobooth
10. Ex Lover

Band: Friendly Fires
Album: Selt-titled
Label: XL Recordings
Release Date: 01/09/2008