James K wastes no time drawing us into her sonic jungle. On opener ‘Days Go By’, she wants to “close it all out and lay down” amid glitchy sound effects mimicking bird calls and reptilian croaks, coaxing us into a spiritual Garden of Eden where we can relax. Right from the start, Friend charms listeners with angelic soundscapes and dream-pop, embracing the listener in a warm, auditory hug.
Beyond her velvety voice, the production shines. This is no surprise as her back catalogue of collaborations with producers and artists stretch between some of the most exciting musicians of late. Previous tracks with Moin, Yves Tumor, Fergus Jones, Parris and Priori, now feel like prototypes for the numbers on this album. And it’s the moments where’s she’s working with returning collaborators that the record’s tracks feel at their most complete and exciting.
The first single, ‘Blinkmoth (July Mix)’, produced with Special Guest DJ feels like a less dubby sibling of their collaboration ‘Scorpio’ from 2023, and is a clear highlight. Elsewhere, K builds on prior foundations cemented in her older music. ‘Rider’ takes an angelic, more accessible approach to 2022’s darker ‘Random Girl’, while ‘Doom Bikini’ feels like a chipper version of ‘Ultra Facial’, oozing with catchy west-coast synths.
Genres feel discretionary throughout the record. The third single for the album, ‘Play’, draws on drum’n’bass breaks, whilst ‘Peel’ has textures and synth melodies not unfamiliar to further leftfield bass and techno genres. In other circumstances, this might come across incoherent, but James K’s harmonic vocal thread ties up the tracks in a dreamy package, where none of the elements feel out of place. ‘Idea.2’ perfectly encapsulates this as K’s vocals function as a binding agent between the Genesis-esque reverbed drums and slightly unsettlingly sound effects that litter the soothing synth leads.
Avant-garde yet familiar, Friend echoes its influences without losing originality, offering a sense of familiarity in what could otherwise be an overwhelming first listen. ‘Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream’ evokes Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd with an addition of liquid drum’n’bass and heavily reverbed guitars, while ‘N’Balmed’ channels trip-hop, recalling Beth Gibbons, both solo and with Portishead.
For an album titled Friend, it carries loneliness and space in its melancholy. So, when, on the closing track, ‘Collapse (falling forward blissfully all the time)’, K sings: “Running in circles, I topple the way, but I’m fine” we have a perfect summation of an album that truly feels like a companion. Repeatedly there for you.
