Thanks to the recent stream of their latest track, Monte Carlo, Mancunian newcomers Girl Friend have blasted themselves up into our hot list of bands to look out for. It’s the kind of bokeh flecked song that draws the summer back into view, which is definitely a welcome arrival having just gone through the peak of the winter blitz, and with 80s electro revival at its heart it’s got a lot of infectious charm.
Considering the fact that the band only formed in 2014, it’s pretty impressive that we’re already starting to get solid tracks from them and while a full studio album hasn’t been announced as of yet, it’s no doubt on its way with them firing out songs at an increasingly rapid rate. It’s no mean feat to turn things out with such high quality so early on in a band’s career, so it’ll be interesting to hear what else they’ve got up their sleeves, but for now all we’re going to do is bask in the warm glow of Monte Carlo.
The song itself builds momentum right from the very beginning with a wave-like shimmer and a short synth organ blast intro before breaking into its prose poetic verse, underpinned by the kind of electronic canvas that Hot Chip would be proud of. The chorus is pretty glorious 80s pop with a great high note synch riff that will be one of the go-to tunes of the summer.
It’s a romantic track at heart that jets off into a dream of the Monaco high life, which we’re pretty sure most of us will be able to empathise with. The French interlude solo reiterates the Gallic pop flirtations of the track, which adds a good additional element of variation to the indie track that takes inspiration from Roxy Music, Soft Cell and Japan.
The new song builds on Girl Friend’s previous releases, Stop, which came bundled up with a very surreal video, and Chemical Romance, which channeled the intrinsic fear of romance that gets us all. Despite the fact that their music takes its cue from some of the great electro-pop bands of the eighties, there’s also a healthy amount of modernity to their music that puts them in the same possible catchment area as Hot Chip and Django Django.
As you can probably guess from listening to the Monte Carlo music stream below and details of their previously released new material, Girl Friend are all about the romantic at the moment. Whether or not this will inspire a post-modern romantic pop flurry doesn’t really matter too much for now; the important thing is that there are a fair few decent tracks to listen to in the very least.
