Review Summary: Fickle quality.
Given the drab depressive rut so much modern pop music finds itself in, I was pretty excited to hear a debut from a band whose Spotify page promises “exuberant, sophisticated, '80s-style synth pop”. Though they do occasionally deliver on this promise, fickle is precisely how I would describe You Are Someone Else, an album which indecisively flings itself between greatness and mediocrity.
My advice to any new listener would be to start from the third track, as this album’s opening tracks are deceptively bland. Opener ‘Wake Me Up’ features almost yawn-worthy verses and a clichéd “we are, we are” hook, with bog standard contemporary pop production to boot. The following track ‘Glue’ sounds as though it was practically engineered for commercial radio, like it was written for a less moody Halsey. After these disappointments, Fickle Friends start proving themselves to have some excellent song-writing and performance prowess. Exciting gems litter the album’s first half, like ‘Swim’, ‘Bite’ and ‘Lovesick’, which are excellent blends of sugary synth, bouncy basslines, sunny guitar ornamentation and lead singer Nat’s pleasantly gentle vocals. These tracks are so catchy, intricately layered and well-performed that I found myself grinning or dancing involuntarily more than once.
Downbeat interlude track ‘In My Head’ signals the middle of the record, which sounds a little like a Chainsmokers song with less obnoxiousness and no percussion. The album’s second half features darker cuts like the excellently dancey yet twisted ‘Rotation’, and the more mid-tempo but highly memorable ‘Hello Hello’. The single-worthy ‘Brooklyn’ features an obligatory album name drop, but as the centrepiece of a simple yet fun hook it plays tastefully. While there are certainly high points in the album’s second half, it also features some of the most forgettable indie pop I’ve heard this year in ‘Paris’ and ‘Midnight’, each featuring some impressively half-assed vocal delivery and composition.
Instrumentally, old and new sounds here are thankfully not shoehorned together, but tastefully blended. ‘Bite’ features some excellent 90’s inspired pre-chorus synth runs, while the drum fills in ‘Say No More’ are very Phil Collins, and ‘Rotation’ sounds like someone injected deliciously off-kilter guitars and synths into a Kylie song. The only moments where the instrumentation falters are in the grossly radio-friendly opening two tracks and the bland ‘Paris’, which all feature very little organic instrumentation and practically no flair. Additionally, the track list here is 16 songs, which is long for any pop record let alone a debut, and features enough redundant material to have easily been cut back to 12 or 13.
‘You Are Someone Else’ is a definite mixed bag, and as much as it’s carried by its vibrant and intensely catchy moments, it’s also held back by some offensively boring and outright bad tracks. If you’re looking for some fun indie pop music with plenty of charm and variation, this album does provide - just don’t expect every song to be a hit.
Recommended tracks: Swim, Lovesick, Bite, Rotation, Hello Hello, Say No More.
