Of all the weeks for a French band to release an album called Wait Until The Flames Rush In, a week in which the flames have risen all over France, is an accidental coincidence I'm sure they wish hadn't happened. This is Special Friend's second album following on from Ennemi Commun that came out in 2021. Special Friend are Paris based duo consisting of Erica Ashleson and Guillame Siracusa.
The album opens with Selkie that opens with a carefully picked guitar and minimal percussion before the dual vocals come in sounding very wistful, creating some glorious imagery for places and people as the strings add to the innate beauty of the song.
Bete conjures up a rather becalmed beast with echoes of Marc Seberg as the chiming guitar accents the beasts slow inexorable march towards its goal.
Silver Lime reminds me of Suggested Friends in a downbeat slow meander, that may transport you to a shimmering coast, as you sit sipping cocktails drinking in the glory of the day.
Fault Lines has squirrely guitar lines fizzing against the spare drumming as those vocals wrap themselves between the warring parties.
Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In is all soft and dappled until the guitars explode, it clearly has nothing to do with police oppression, being more of a domestic drama, as life is thrown into disarray possibly by the pandemic, but it could just be normal domestic issues.
Inertie is a delightful evocation of a certain kind of ennui, the harmonies twist themselves around the insistent guitar line, leaving us thankful we get to hear just how the inertia has taken over their lives.
Maze opens with what sounds like some Stylophone as the twin vocals try to find a way out of the Maze they feel they are enmeshed within. This doesn't hit too many dead ends either.
Hard To Explain is the slowest song on the album, a sparse intro leads into Erica telling us just how confused she is at your behavior, it could easily be aimed at the badly behaved French Police as it could be at the rioters, let alone the lover it's most likely aimed at, as the guitars start to sound quite angry towards the songs pinnacle.
Applause! Is seemingly written to close a live set with, as they ask us all to applaud the bands performance, well this tune has a cool energy to it, that as it discusses servitude would still be great to clap along too, as the ostrich guitar solo comes in, squalling away.
The album closes with Ami Special that jangles along nicely for you to cement your friendship with that special person closest to you.
Find out more at https://specialfriend.bandcamp.com/album/wait-until-the-flames-come-rushing-in-uk-us https://www.facebook.com/specialfriendband https://www.instagram.com/specialfriendmusic/
