One of the best undernoticed singles of last year was “Paris” by UK dance-rock act Friendly Fires. It’s one of these young love, “us against the world” romantic epics but the arrangement and production is just perfect, big and sprawling with waves of big synths washing over the syncopated percussion. It’s fantastic.
The band released two EPs last year in addition to that single, one of which, “Photobooth,” is pretty good too:
MP3: Friendly Fires – Photobooth
Their debut album comes out in September in the UK. (No U.S. release date yet, but they’re on XL so it’ll happen at some point.) and they’re currently here in NYC playing some shows. They played Santos Party House on Saturday night and they’ll be at Mercury Lounge tonight.
You never can tell whether bands like this are going to be any good live, though; how much they’ll rely on backing tracks, etc. But it’s worth showing up to find out. Plus, Modey Lemon is on the bill, who were really good last night opening for !!!. See you there?
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