This year, Friends have been labelled as a 'Band to Watch' by the shadow
puppets NME and included on the BBC 'Sound of 2012' poll. That's the footballing
equivalent of signing for Manchester City from Swansea City. At Summer Sundae
Weekender earlier in the year, I saw Friends perform their highly anticipated
set. They're said to be one of Brooklyn's finest exports, however after their
performance at SSW, it could have been two guys from Jersey Shore and two girls
from a The Cure tribute act up. They released their debut album
Manifest! in June, we're just going to listen to "Ruins" for
the sake of my ears.
Listening
to this track brings to mind the forward and sexual vocals of Uffie, mixed with
the obscurity of a krautrock artist. Is this a good thing? I'll let you be the
judge of that. In the live video above, vocalist Samantha Urbani screams.
Something Avey Tare does successfully with Animal Collective, but this is just
plain dull and amateur. Urbani does have a respectable voice at least. The bass
performed by the (at SSW) see-through top Goth
kid Lesley Hann is ineffective and out of time in places. It's hard to
criticise Friends without taking into account their image, because it seems
they're one of those fashionista artists like Bjork or Nico. Not that I'm comparing
Friends to the likes of these fantastic artists.
"Ruins"
does have some nice features and it sure does blend genres from time to time. I
can't help but notice the lack of musical quality both with the vocals and the
bass. The guitar work is very post-punk like, but at times it sounds completely
off-putting. This isn't for the krautrock fan or the post-punk fan. I would go
as far as saying this isn't for people who listen to indie pop, indie rock and
simply pop. Friends and Ruins in particular are for people that expect
something peculiar about that they're listening to. A bit extra, a little bit
more image. It's not for me, but you might like it. Is this what the kids
listen to these days?
~Eddie