So much promise, so badly buried (Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires)

Member Name: lakeyboy

Product:	Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
Date:	29/07/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Two of the songs are absolute gems

Disadvantages: Overproduced to the point of blandness, a real missed opportunity

THE BBC got quite a bit of stick for over-splashing the cash on its coverage of Glastonbury, but for its ability to expose people like me, whose days of going to gigs were replaced by nights of nappy-changing some years ago, to new music, it cannot be faulted.

There I was thinking I'd tune in for Neil Young and the Boss' headline performances, when I found myself channel-surfing onto the blue button coverage during the daylight hours.

This is the best way to watch a festival (mainly because it eliminates the threat of both botulism and trenchfoot), and means you can take in all the action on your sofa, with a cold beer and zero prospect of a downpour.

This year, the group which caught my eye (other than, of course, the E Street Band), was Friendly Fires, who lit up one afternoon's performance with a display that channelled the energy of Freddie Mercury at Live Aid, only while wearing very tight, short trousers. Too tight, and too short, if you ask me.

Having sampled this group in their effervescent, live form I made the decision to purchase their debut album. Previously I might have cherry-picked a couple of tracks off iTunes or wherever but this time I went in with both feet, and bought THE WHOLE DAMN CD.

Colour me underwhelmed. The two songs I would have downloaded were "Skeleton Boy" and "Jump In The Pool", so it was no surprise that these were the standout numbers on the album.

Everything else seems completely overdone, the producers losing themselves (and at the same time, the meat and veg of the song) in a fog of bleeps, muzak and what I'm sure they hoped would be 'soundscapes' in the Eno style.

The net result is a wishy-washy, watered-down effect which dilutes the quality of the music to the point where it is almost unlistenable-to.

In a live arena, this might work. In fact, judging by how well the group went down at Glastonbury, it does. I guess overblown 80s power-pop with a white soul tinge don't translate too well to compact disc.

Summary: Could do so, so much better