5/10 FRIENDLY FIRES – PALA (JUST)
English dance-pop trio Friendly Fires still have one ear in that part of the Eighties soundtracked by Howard Jones and Duran Duran.

Folks who still combine perma-gelled hair with half-
buttoned dress shirts won’t mind that, and the trip down memory lane is filled by the sound of Edward Gibson’s voice – similar in tone to Jones, Nik Kershaw and the rest.

Hurting also features some of those atrocious Casiotone electronic effects – enough to make anyone who appreciates the resonance of an acoustic instrument scratch their own eyes out, and yet cheerily cheesy.

There is, of course, dancefloor value in these compositions, especially when, as in Show Me Lights, the necessary beats are present and correct, but not in that annoying, clichéd, doef-doef format. – BD