I do like what The Friends come up with. The duo of Ezra Gale and Kevin Woodruff are from New Oregon in New York. Their base is sort of 80s Indie Pop and New Wave, but they stretch much further afield into the realms of Intelligent Indie.
You know how much we love Intelligent Indie and these two can mix it with the best. Whichever angle they come in at, the songs are incredibly catchy with hooks that just grab hold of you and the songs are beautifully arranged.
The variety on show here is incredible, no two songs sound the same. They are bold off to get instrumentally like INXS on Bond with me. Yet that song is bookmarked by the great angular Indie Rock of Glass and the pure laidback Pop of For Your Consideration which is wonderfully melodic.
They are also not afraid of 80s Synth Pop. The closer, Quitting Time has a keyboard run that just absolutely hooks in, The Pop is great too. Daydream is almost Dream Pop, instrumentally very Bates Motel with its bass led run.
But as you might expect, it is the inventive Indie that grabs me most. Crush Season is a wonderful example of late 60s Village Pop, almost Toytown, a little Small Faces. Paralysed gets all Field Music and The Futureheads.
I'm especially enamoured with Lifeboat, a jaunty singalong pop song lit up by its hippy trippy riff. What a cracking album this is, extremely accessible, yet surprising with the changes of direction. The sort of album that lights up a year. Well done you two!
You can listen to and buy the album here.
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