Friendly Fires’ self-titled debut album burst onto the indie scene in 2008 with a sound that combined the layered vocals of the Mystery Jets with the electronic dance-pop of Klaxons, but remained unique and distinctive. After the critical acclaim and Mercury and Brit nominations that followed, expectation has weighed heavy on the trio from St Albans for their second effort. Defying those who would dismiss the band as simply another short-lived offshoot of nu-rave, guitarist Edd Gibson recently claimed in an interview that their new album Pala is ‘a natural progression, not a deliberate departure’.
And, on first listen, Pala is an album that will not disappoint; it is drenched in summer sun, tropical birds – whose chirping introduces the atmospheric title track – and Aldous Huxley’s Utopian novel Island, to which the title alludes. The opening track and first single, ‘Live Those Days Tonight’, bristles with attitude and edge and promises to be an indie dancefloor favourite. Elsewhere, the infectiously danceable ‘Hurting’ incorporates an ambient electro breakdown and the glitzy ‘Show Me Lights’ continues the tropical flavour with a steel drum effect accompanying its joyful chorus.
Unfortunately, the second half of the album doesn’t maintain the pace or variety of the first, and the closing songs tend to blend into one another. Pala is still an impressive follow-up album and offers many gems on repeated listens; a particular highlight is ‘Blue Cassette’, a meditation on loss and memory with an anthemic chorus in which Ed Macfarlane’s voice soars, brimming with emotion, when he sings: ‘As I hear your voice, it sets my heart on fire’. The upcoming single ‘Hawaiian Air’ starts where the earlier escapist hit ‘Paris’ left off, and it is a holiday song perfectly suited for sing-along treatment on a glorious day at Glastonbury.
