Monday, October 30, 2006

Friends - "Fragile" {UK} [1972] @256 (A breeze of fresh Pop-Folk)

What's up?!, today I would like to offer you a fresh breeze of super well crafted pure pop folk, so relax and enjoy.

You will hear echoes from the Byrds passing through the harmonies of the Fresh Maggots... a must for pop-folk enthusiasts.

Review Taken from Othermusic:

"Fragile is the best pop album reissue I've heard in god knows how long...I really don't think there has been anything as good as this since the Action's Rolled Gold or the Millennium releases. Take track five for instance, a near perfect two-minute song called "Memories" that I've probably played 30 times in the last week alone. It ends with a refrain as simple and as brilliant as the whole piece's construction, "think about life/think about love," and which actually always does make me think about those things, along with the fact that I want to hear it again immediately.

The main "Friends" in question who recorded it were Peter Howell and John Ferdinando, a couple of Englishmen with a home studio and a penchant for releasing pastoral folk records in ridiculously small quantities during the late-'60s and early-'70s. Fragile is in some ways not as, well, fragile as other projects I've heard by the two, but only because the pop sensibility at play here is just too direct and charmingly infectious.

It's like a less kitschy Free Design, or a Schoolhouse Rock song with an ambiguous moral authority. Peter Howell has been with the legendary BBC Radiophonic workshop since the mid-'70s, so I'll assume it is he that is responsible for the intriguing sonic palette that characterizes Fragile, which manages to be both completely stripped down and lo-fi yet weirdly expansive at the same time. Lovely stuff, and if you dig it be sure to check out their earlier bands Agincourt and Ithaca."

Need to say more?, what are you waiting?

Friends - "Take a walk"
Friends - "Memories"

Keep Listening

Links in comments!


11 comments:

Algarnas said...

Friends -"Fragile"

Anonymous said...

Thenx! Haven't heard it yet, but I'm grateful for the opportunity!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful melodic sounds

Govindas Dream said...

could you lpease re-up this? I would love to hear this :)!

thanks, amadeus :)

Hajul Ellah said...

please re-up??? i beg you

isabelbc said...

new link http://lix.in/-6c8b2f

Anonymous said...

I know this is many years later but could you please post this again? I can't find this album anywhere.

isabelbc said...

hi Anonymous,

new link http://lix.in/-6c8b2f works, at least Megaupload

:o)

Anonymous said...

Thanx a lot!

Bob Presto said...

None of the links work...Megaupload has been shut down...please re-upload, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Anyone have it uploaded, especially in flac?

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