Fickle Friends

Brighton, Englands Fickle Friends choose pop happiness on their effervescently hooky 2025 eponymous third album. The album arrives almost five years after Are We Gonna Be Alright?, a period that found singer Natassja Shiner and her bandmates going on a two-year hiatus to recoup from touring and reconnect with their passion for making music. The time away proved fruitful and Fickle Friends once again reveal themselves as one of the sweetest sounding bands you might not have heard of. Self-produced, the album feels at once lighter than past efforts, and yet full of serious emotional weight as Shiner takes a deep look inside herself, unpacking her anxiety and fear in ways that seem nakedly raw. It has the feeling of speaking honestly, as if to friends at a bar, and its one she digs into on "Happiness," singing "Look at my career, its D.O.A/Hungover and broke/And Ill binge another show, sitting at home/And every day Im tryna fill the void." That the songs chorus hook literally hangs on the notion that happiness is a choice, speaks to the mood of self-care, gratitude, and maturity that Fickle Friends champion throughout the album. Its a warm tenderness they bring to songs like "Bleach," "WOW," and "Swoon," the latter a song that masterfully evokes the sugary sweet 80s synth pop of Wham! in the best possible way. Clearly, Shiner has taken the work of contemporary bands like the 1975, Two Door Cinema Club, and Paramore to heart and Fickle Friends songs deftly echo their influences in assured ways. And while longtime fans will be drawn to the sparkling, dance-rock at play here, there are more subtle influences at hand, whether it be the low-key Fleetwood Mac textures of "Honest" or the Chic-esque disco-R&B grooves of "Fantasy." Centered on the album is "Joe," a soaring proclamation of romantic fidelity so infectiously endearing and lump in the throat that, as with all of Fickle Friends, youll probably want to play it again immediately. ~ Matt Collar