Friendly Fires - Dig Deeper [Splatter UK Import]

Dig Deeper marks Friendly Fires' first album in almost ten years, and this UK import pressing comes on splatter vinyl for collectors who like their dance records with a little visual flair.

The St Albans band arrived in 2008 with a self-titled debut of percussive, sweat-soaked dance-rock, then refined that sound on Pala and Inflorescent. The gap since has been long and, by their own account, full of doubt about what the band should be. Personal loss, including the deaths of two friends, hangs over this record, yet the response is to move through it rather than dwell.

Across eleven tracks, the band lean on their long-standing heroes: the nervy rhythms of Talking Heads, the melancholy shimmer of New Order and the warmth of Balearic house. Magnetic treats attraction as something almost physical, Lose All Your Friends opens proceedings, and Wear It Out closes them.

Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson have described it as some of their best work, and the sense of a band reconnecting with why they started is hard to miss. There is grief in the background, but the foreground belongs to rhythm.

Due in 2027, the splatter finish makes this an especially eye-catching way to welcome the band back.