“When Friendly Fires released their debut album in 2008, the St Albans trio’s busy, brooding brand of electro-punk seemed precision-engineered for a music scene craving respite from the scratchy guitars and pointy brogues of landfill indie. By the time the band’s second, Pala, came out three years later, they were on the precipice of proper mainstream success; their dancefloor-friendly synthpop mer”
“The UK trio’s first album since 2011 finds new life in the smooth surfaces of house music.”
“The new Friendly Fires album is fine. It’s just fine, and that’s all there is to it. No individual song here is bad. They’re as easy to hear without listening to as an air conditioner or a car rolling down a quiet street, and are just as easily forgotten. What else is there to say? That the hook on ‘Offline’ is catchy, and that Disclosure collab ‘Heaven Let Me In’ sounds like 2009 in the best pos”
“It’s hard to hate Friendly Fires. Like, you’d have to be a really miserable sod for the St Albans trio to drive you up the wall. Their songs are joyful, inoffensive and just – y’know – pretty damn nice most of the time. Their 2008 debut album was timed perfectly. They snuck into the mainstream right behind nu-rave big-hitters Klaxons, and offered a more accessible than some of the indie scene’s s”
