Friday, February 19, 2021

Fickle Friends release new EP amid these ‘Weird Years’

After a three-year span without new music; Weird Years (Season 1) is the latest helping from Brighton indie-pop quad Fickle Friends.

The aptly named EP, released on 15 January 2021, consists of five heavenly dance-around-your-room tracks, and is perfect start to what is the first instalment of a collection due to be released over the course of the year.  


Opening with What A Time, we are brought into the EP with sparkling electronic beats, and lyrics which contemplate that being stuck inside isn’t necessarily as awful as it seems. With the second verse boasting ‘I don’t miss going outside, oh, what a time, what a time to be alive,’ I found myself instantly transported to being sat on a train, on my way to see them live in Cambridge.


Straying down a different path, 92 and Million focus on the notion of falling in love. These two songs remind me of a younger Fickle Friends, giving us hints of Say No More and Rotation with their meticulous production and smooth lead vocals.


With cliché lyrics, 92 does what it needs to but is nowhere near the showstopper that Million presents us with. That being said, I hadn’t even got through the first listen before the chorus was firmly saturated into my mind; humming the tune to ‘keeping me waiting since 92, I was a mess ‘til I met you’ for the remainder of the day.


Providing us with a modern take on online relationships, IRL presents the anxiety of the dreaded talking stage; with the added pandemic-fuelled worry that it could last longer than either party wants it to, causing the relationship to ‘fizzle out’ before it even begins. For me, IRL perfectly encapsulates the giddy feeling of not knowing what on earth is going on when you first meet someone; not knowing if it’s something other than just a mess of feelings, while worrying that you might not even get the chance to explore it. 

As a whole, Weird Years (Season 1), is a cool retrospective listen back on some of the emotional challenges faced by many in 2020; and those that are likely to keep prevailing into 2021. It’s an EP that’s going to make you want to dance, but is also the perfect soundtrack for lying in bed, dreaming about being at a gig.

Well, if nothing else, at least we got this EP and a promise of more during these weird, Weird Years.

  

Tiffany Wright 

@the_hellmouth

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