Friendly Fires, Inflorescent - album review
A lot of pressure will have been put on this record internally by Hertfordshire's Friendly Fires.
Their previous - back in 2011 - reached No.6 on the UK album charts despite their singles only really ever gracing the Top 100. Yet Pala really gripped the British imagination and it seemed Friendly Fires were an essential part of the pop scene.
And then they said they didn't want to do another one like it. And then stopped going altogether (unofficially).
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So to come back is one big step. And this is their first record since then. No pressure.
They blamed a "lack of creativity" for their time away. And any band is entitled to time off. The touring/promoting/writing expectations placed on big acts in the modern, 24-hour social media age is staggering. Why not wait until they were ready to record on their terms alone?
You can tell they've put some big effort into this return. There's some pretty 'out there' electro pop vibes with funk-laden bass underneath leading the foray. It just lacks...something.
Missing is the big hitting choruses and walls of sound The 1975 can create. Missing is any real gravitas in many songs to make you stop and listen. As we've heard said: "It's fine for having on in the background when you are doing something else."
'Comfort', 'a distraction' or 'background noise' is probably not what they would have been hoping for.
Opening track Can't Wait Forever ignores the above. It's got some stonking early 00s dance vibes laced into its summertime core complete with jangling guitars and pumping bass. It gets the record off to a sumptuous start. Love Like Waves also hammers home with its thumping beats.
But then we are kind of left meandering. Like performing an Olympic-worthy dive off the top board at the pool and then being unable to find the steps out of the water.
The breezy vocals of latest single Silhouettes fail to catch the imagination. Sleeptalking with those overbearing keys is a bit of a mess. And the 80s reverberations of Kiss And Rewind leave the track feeling like it has a vast, insurmountable hole in the middle.
It could all have been something bigger.
Rating: 5/10
Friendly Fires perform at Birmingham's O2 Institute on November 1
