The Singles Jukebox

Can they fly without Aeroplane? (Yes, I did come up with that by myself. You’re welcome)…

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[6.45]

Tal Rosenberg: This doesn’t smell like fire. It smells more like Bloc Party’s feces, at least until the end when the Terry Riley-sounding loop comes in, but by that point it’s just a gas gas gas.
[3]

Chuck Eddy: Not anywhere near as good a dance song (or song in general) as “Jump Into The Fire” by Nilsson, which also had Caribbean whatsits hidden inside. With this, I guess I can imagine people busting some crazy Native American rain-dance moves to the conga-and-whistle parts (there’s a break toward the end I kind of like), but what do they do for the rest of it, which has barely any beat at all? Just stand there with their arms folded?
[3]

Ulrik Nørgaard: Aside from the fact that it really does sound like they’re singing “jump in the poo”, this is an epic, forward-thinking slice of grand popular music. And it’s a remarkably tight fusion of all that afro/disco/world/freaky-percussion malarkey that gets the kids going these days.
[8]

Martin Skidmore: I generally loathe indie bands that claim to be in some sort of classic pop tradition, as the lot of them can barely produce a decent song between them. I guess adding a pop sensibility to the tedious electro-shoegaze that seems to be all over the place now would be a good thing, but this doesn’t achieve it. It’s not at all danceable (for me at least), perhaps because it’s so clumsily played, the music lacks any force and feels very flimsy, and the tune is instantly forgettable. Rubbish, which gains a point for a reasonably entertaining South American ending.
[3]

Jordan Sargent: Friendly Fires want to be taken seriously as a dance band with chops as much as they want to be taken seriously as an indie band with a chance of getting played on Radio 1. And the thing that makes them great is that they toe both sides of the line with aplomb, with “Jump in the Pool” being a prime example. The percussion is fussy but locked in groove, and the bassist is used rather than put on display; meanwhile, the chorus, with its breathy vocals and starry-eyed backing harmonies, tugs just the right amount of heart-string. This is the sound of admirable London indie.
[8]

Hillary Brown: I have a hunch that I don’t usually like this sort of clappy, dancy thing that everyone else really raves about and says is better than bread sliced into snowflake shapes and is going to save music. Usually, I find it slow and not nearly melody-driven enough and kind of wanky, and then I complain about it when it makes Pitchfork’s top ten singles at the end of the year. But I like this one. So go figure.
[7]

Ian Mathers: If the Big Pink epitomized a certain macho, blustery (and kind of dumb) version of modern shoegaze, “Jump in the Pool” is the perfect example of a more nuanced, electronics-friendly (to the extent of being part synth-pop really) variety. Instead of being post-BRMC, then, Friendly Fires sounds a bit like Maps if they were less boring and more beat-crazy. It’s a sound that takes in everyone from Cut Copy to the less annoying parts of Foals, and the result is utterly irresistible.
[10]

Colin Cooper: Has this been on the radio for months now? This isn’t that familiarity-through-recognition thing, where a song sounds so great and prosaic (but great) because it’s based around a riff carbon-copied into a million songs (a good example would be the bassline that always gets attributed to Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”, but is way, way older than that). I think maybe it’s just a feeling that a song with such great hooks — the mad percussion, the synthy, breathy backing vocals, the up-an-octave guitar note played four times under the refrain — maybe a song like this should have been around longer, y’know? Partly cos it sounds a bit LCD Soundsystem in 2007, partly cos it’s just so darn good.
[8]

John M. Cunningham: At first blush, Friendly Fires sound like any number of indie bands riding this decade’s disco/electro/new-wave revival, but what sets them apart in my mind is a particular facility for polyrhythms. Nowhere is this more apparent than on “Jump in the Pool,” which shifts between an anxious, clattering verse and a sumptuously woozy chorus, seamlessly held together by this busy, won’t-let-up tropical beat that just about makes the song.
[8]

Rodney J. Greene: Not as much of a song as “Paris”, but the percussive rush and unmussed Kompakt synths are intact, even if in too recognizable a form.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: I wonder which auteur’s filmic memoir of the go-go Berliniamsburg days will feature this on the soundtrack during the “cocaine was everywhere” L-train montage sequence.
[6]