As a contrast to his band’s loud energetic albums, Alexei from that band Johnny Foreigner, performing under his Yr Friends guise, has previously written a handful of EPs which turn everything down a notch, creating lovely acoustic pieces sometimes backed up with light electronics and field recordings. Yr Friends Over You is his 6th EP, a short but delightful selection of songs where the songwriting and general quality of the lyrics really shines through.
The first thing which hits me during opener ‘Cities With Libraries’ is how great everything sounds; the guitars sound lush, the vocals lovely. It’s a short song, especially when you factor in the field recording intro, but the harmonies later on sound perfect. ‘Tom Doesn’t Work Here Anymore’ is a song about past friendships and changes over the years, looking at where friends are now. The guitar parts remind me of Owen in a great way, the synth sound a little odd but it works. ‘Five More Years’ works well as a middle track, a spoken word track which is pretty much a lengthy, post-election result, Facebook status read out over electronic drums and slightly faster guitars.
‘What Toronto Isn’t Telling You’ is the most interesting production wise, the vocals falling back in the mix to the sound of a clean electric guitar, odd electric keyboard-esque drums playing throughout. It’s a nice end to a rather lush EP. If you’ve listened to Yr Friends before then you’ll certainly enjoy this; imagine the previous records with a slightly more polished sound and perhaps even better lyrics and you’re almost there. That’s not to dismiss previous work; the previous five EPs have some excellent songs on them but, after a fair few listens, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending that you start with this one. The record is available for £3+ (Pay what you want. It’s worth more) on Bandcamp. Yr Friends is on tour with Noyo Mathis this week playing Frome, Portsmouth, Brighton, Milton Keynes and Birmingham as well as a house show in Colchester (If you want to attend that drop an email for deets) – if you can get to any of those shows and have the chance to hear these songs live then you definitely should. Get down early.
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