10 Best Pop Albums Of 2018
2. Fickle Friends - You Are Someone Else
Aside from being another killer lyric from another killer single, "You Are Someone Else" was an album title laced with irony considering how long Fickle Friends fans had waited for their limitless potential to be realised across a long-player.
The line feeds into the punchy chorus of Brooklyn - a 2016 release as loaded with kicky synths and infectious hooks as everything else they'd birthed since breaking through in 2014 with instant bangers Swim, Play and For You. Though the latter pair didn't make the grade for the overdue release, the former did, and set the tone early for the year's finest pure pop record.
Far from being an intimidating prospect, the 18 luxurious tracks re-establish the band for late arrivals with hit after hit after pulsating hit. Never neglecting their pitch-perfect pop sensibilities, Bite and Midnight gloriously tackle the youthful exuberance of young lust elsewhere teased in the band's breakout single Glue and unfiltered floor-filler Rotation.
But there's pathos hidden amongst the hedonism. The record races out of the blocks with Wake Me Up, a polished piece on the inability to depart doomed love. "We are absolutely failing" concludes the chorus as a call-to-arms for those similarly struggling, but should only be bellowed in context of the record itself. With this glorious debut, Fickle Friends have curated one of the year's great success stories.