In 2013 Fickle Friends won a competition to play at The Big Feastival (Jamie Oliver’s wonderfully posh food and music festival). They played on the main stage just after lunch, to a handful of woozy punters, and it was obvious then that the Brighton based five-piece had something a bit special. Now, half a decade on, the sparkling sugar-rush crew have finally released their debut album. It’s been a long time coming, but their first record is a stonker.
All spangling guitars and glitzy earworms, each track on ‘You Are Someone Else’ is a strong shot of brazen pop. Fickle Friends have had five years to perfect their sound, and now, with the unadulterated freedom of Alphabeat, confidence of Paramore and the impossibly catchy hooks of Carly Rae Jepsen, they’ve managed to distil everything that earned them thousands of fans into 16 songs.
Roller-rink jam ‘Bite’ is crammed with crisp beats and buoyant synth whirs; ‘Glue’ borrows the best of disco from the ’70s; and the gauzy electronics and scattered beats of ‘Swim’ are still as jubilant as when Fickle Friends first dropped it, back in 2014. Midway through, the glorious sunshine does risk sunstroke; with the giddy respite ‘In My Head’ being more English summer than Ibiza heatwave; but this is soon rectified as the record dives into the cantering ‘Rotation’, a slick slice of euphoria.
Oozing summer vibes and with choruses that’ll hit you harder than a tsunami, the quintet’s debut is like an alcopop: sweet and unashamed, the ideal dancefloor tipple.
