Album Review: Fickle Friends - Are We Gonna Be Alright?

Content Warning: mentions of mental illness and depression

Fickle Friends’ second album, Are We Gonna Be Alright? follows two EPs released during lockdown, and features all the songs on their catalogue that they felt deserved a space on an album. The indie-pop four piece from Brighton sing about mental health, the struggles of lockdown whilst in relationships and everything in between. Whilst some of the songs sound quite similar to each other content-wise, there are some gems on this album that definitely deserve a listen.

This juxtaposition of the lyrics to the music forms a wary listening experience, and does not quite match the rest of the album

The opening song, ‘Love You To Death,’ curates an upbeat pop-heavy opening to the album. The feel-good sound has rock influences in the guitar and in the echoey lyrics, as they disappear into the ether of the song. The lyrics of the song are quite threatening, as lead singer Nat Shiner sings of being so obsessed and in love with someone you could kill them. During the bridge, she sings ‘watch the air escaping your lungs, I won’t let you go for no-one.’ This is quite disconcerting when paired with the upbeat guitar and synth. This juxtaposition of the lyrics to the music forms a wary listening experience, and does not quite match the rest of the album in terms of what they sing about. However, as the lyrical threats of the bridge ends, we hear a glockenspiel that resembles a heartbeat, adding a pulsating rhythm to the song. This ending of the song is perhaps the best part of it, as we move on to the next song.

‘Not Okay’ begins much slower with just a piano and then becomes full of synthesiser and guitar. The lyrics speak of the confusing state of their relationship, they can’t communicate and are struggling. It feels like a break-up song before the break-up has happened- the tricky point in a relationship where things aren’t going well but the relationship is yet to end. This is quite a universal experience, and I felt myself agreeing with a lot of the lyrics. In terms of the rhythm, there were definitely influences from artists such as The Weeknd, with a dance and R&B backing beat to the song. Many of the lyrics are repeated throughout the song, as she struggles to say how she really feels. This song seems to loop back to a later song, creating a story arc through the album.

The sense of meta writing- writing music about writing music- adds and interesting layer to an otherwise typical pop song

The third song, ‘Write Me A Song’ feels perfect for a 2000s movie such as Wild Child. The Avril Lavigne, beginning-of-21st-century-pop sounding song features a distant mic singer and talks about their bands experience as musicians and writers, and yet it is not enough for who they are singing to. It feels like a revenge song, as they ask them to write a good song for the band as a way of apology for their behaviour. The sense of meta writing- writing music about writing music- adds and interesting layer to an otherwise typical pop song reminiscent of any teen rom-com from the past 20 years. That is not to say the song is bad, but it feels somewhat formulaic in its rhythm and instruments, like it has been done before. The next song, ‘Alone,’ pairs with this theme of teenage romance and drama as they sing about having a massive party when you’re young and your parents are away. A song made to be played at a house party, the desire to not be alone and to be surrounded by friends is a universal experience. There is an interesting repeat of lyrics in the chorus and pre-chorus and it feels like a song you could chant along to at a gig or festival.

‘Glow’ talks about thanking someone for bringing the singer back to life, bringing joy back into her life. The song feels restorative as she reflects on her life. In terms of music, it sounds quite similar to the previous song, and has a heavy pop feel to it. I appreciated that the song was so upbeat and positive despite talking about depression; it is not the typical ‘sad song’ we expect to hear talking about mental health. The bridge has an indie feel to it before returning to its pop roots in the final chorus.

The echoey pre-chorus and 80s inspired synth backing and guitar formulates an incredibly catchy tune

What I noted about many of their songs is that they are not gendered, they do not say ‘his’ or ‘hers’ when singing about someone else- this means that the song can be applied to anyone, making the listening experience more universal than many pop songs that plainly talk about men or women. Indeed, in the next song, ‘Pretty Great,’ we don’t know or need to know the gender of her lover. This is perhaps my favourite song on the album, and made it on to my Liked Songs playlist immediately. The 80s vibes of the song match with the lyrics where Nat sings about having an immediate connection with someone at a party but you can’t remember their name. The fleeting connection of kissing a stranger but always remembering what they said about you is an interesting theme of a song, and feels original despite it happening to people all the time. The echoey pre-chorus and 80s inspired synth backing and guitar formulates an incredibly catchy tune, the best on the album.

Towards the end of the album, we get quite a few songs that lyrically are about mental health. ‘Load On Your Mind,’ ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah,’ ‘Won’t Hurt Myself’ and ‘Listen’ all talk about the struggles of mental health, particularly topical following constant lockdowns. ‘Yeah’ is a heavy and angry song about not being heard and feeling purposeless; a different interpretation to mental health than the other two slightly sadder songs. ‘Load On Your Mind’ curates a conversation between male and female voices as they sing about being there to help people around them. The chorus is not as different to the verses as in their other songs, and so it is tricky to distinguish the chorus from the rest of the song. ‘Listen’ is a much slower song than ‘Yeah’ as the singer urges whomever she is singing to to speak out, to talk about what is on their mind. In this sense, it is similar to ‘Load On Your Mind’ in terms of the message- perhaps the two songs could have benefitted having been blended into one. ‘Won’t Hurt Myself’ is a defiant tune with a rock inspired backing guitar. It seems the singer is in destructive mode in order to protect themselves, they are putting themselves first but at what cost? The electric guitar solo is rocky and a nice change from the bubblegum pop of much of the album.

It speaks of a relationship where you speak but never meet, a modern romance, and a universal experience for people my age

‘IRL’ is rhythmically reminiscent of ‘Swim,’ a song on their debut album, as Nat sings about feeling in the dark only having a relationship online. A song written in lockdown, when many people were away from their loved ones, it has a beat similar to Haim, and is something 16 year old me would have loved. It speaks of a relationship where you speak but never meet, a modern romance, and a universal experience for people my age. The final song on the album is the titular ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’ which opens with a slow melancholic piano. This song feels full circle from ‘Not Okay’ as Nat sings about trying to make the relationship work again- with a new-found determination to get through the blip. Written at a band camp, the song is a collaborative project and feels different to the other songs on the album, setting it apart as the lead single from the album. The song is a nice ending to the album, and is one of the better tunes.

At only 39 minutes, the album is quite short and I feel that there is more Fickle Friends could have done with it. Whilst there are some hidden gems, I felt a lot of the topics were repetitive. It is of course so important to talk about topics like mental health, but having four songs one after the other about the same theme seemed a bit trivial, and took away from the message they were trying to send. Perhaps if they had one really strong song about mental health- rather than four quite average songs- it would have made more of an impression on me. Furthermore, quite a lot of the songs sound like other artists- they seem to have lost their voice somewhat compared to their debut album which is very much a Fickle Friends album. A largely very poppy album, many of the songs would not be amiss on a soundtrack to a teen film; not a bad thing at all, but perhaps not what they were aiming for as an indie band. Songs like ‘Pretty Great’ and ‘IRL’ are good, but on the whole, this is not their best album to date. I hope in their next one they can find their feet again.