Friendly Fires - Dig Deeper [White]

Dig Deeper is Friendly Fires' fourth album and their first since Inflorescent in 2019, pressed here on white vinyl, and it was well worth the wait.

The St Albans band made their name on sweaty, falsetto-led indie disco, but the road to this record was far from a party. They came through a stretch of uncertainty and personal loss, including the death of a friend while the album was being made, and worked through around a hundred ideas before settling on the songs that felt right.

That weight gives the grooves real depth. Lead single Magnetic explores attraction as a force strong enough to override good sense, and it sets the tone for a record where sweeping choruses and Ed Macfarlane's soaring falsetto ride on top of dance rhythms built for late nights. Lose All Your Friends opens the set, while the title track Dig Deeper sits at its heart.

Talking Heads, New Order and the sunlit sound of Balearic dance all hover in the background, and Wear It Out brings the curtain down on the set.

For fans who have waited years for more, this is a richer, more grown-up Friendly Fires, still made for movement but with a lot more on its mind.