構成数 | 1枚

合計収録時間 | 00:51:00

On their infectious debut album, 2018's You Are Someone Else, Brighton, England's Fickle Friends manage to make their dancey brand of '80s- and early-'90s-influenced synth pop sounds utterly contemporary. Produced by Mike Crossey, the album finds the band deftly straddling the line between the uber-polished studio aesthetic favored by '90s production powerhouse Stock, Aitken & Waterman, and the dreamy, evocative indie electronic of bands like Passion Pit. It's a creative equation that also calls to mind fellow Brits the 1975, set apart by the distinctive immediacy of singer Natassja "Natti" Shiner, whose crisp, airy vocals convey earnest passion. Not surprisingly, Crossey (who produced the 1975's debut album), certainly brings a level of pop wisdom to the proceedings, helping Fickle Friends find an almost perfect balance between indie pop cool and mainstream accessibility. Playing to their strengths throughout the album, the group's impressive debut puts a hard emphasis on hooky choruses and kinetic, rhythmically contagious arrangements. Tracks like the opening "Wake Me Up," and "Glue" mix airy keyboards, bubbly percussion, and laser-bright guitars, all wrapped around Shiner's buoyant, often richly textured melodies. Particularly engaging are tracks like the sassy but evocative anthem "Hard to Be Myself," and the yearning, slap-bass accentuated "Lovesick." It's a sound that draws upon the effusive, gauzy electronic pop of M83 as much as it does the similarly inclined work of contemporaries like the Naked and Famous, and Copenhagen's Alphabeat. Elsewhere, songs like "Heartbroken" and "Brooklyn" keep the band's sophisticated balancing act on its feet with productions that have a crystalline, late-'80s movie soundtrack sheen. ~ Matt Collar