Firing blanks
After a not inconsiderable gap of eight years Sean Lennon finally delivers the follow up to his critically lauded debut album 'Into The Sun'. Having spent the intervening period working with everyone from Handsome Boy Modelling School to Ben Lee, you'd expect an altogether more eclectic mix from this ten track offering but 'Friendly Fire' is a disappointingly one dimensional affair.
Proceedings kick off promisingly enough with the dreamy 'Dead Meat' but with the exception of one or two stand-out moments this is a rather anaemic affair. There are some neat psychedelic touches on the loping 'Wait For Me' but sonic adventurism seems to be distinctly low on the agenda. Lennon's stock in trade is wistful, slacker pop, rooted in classic seventies song-writing with the odd power-pop flourish. 'Parachute' is an individual moment of pure loveliness, spookily reminiscent of something from The Beatles 'White Album' the somnambulant organ sound and the nursery rhyme like melody deployed on the chorus are genuinely affecting moments of pure quality.
Unfortunately 'Friendly Fire' has a tendency to drift rather aimlessly for large swathes of time whilst Lennon's distinctive nasal vocal delivery becomes so overly syrupy and rather Elliott Smith-lite you feel like throwing him a copy of 'Figure 8' and asking him to try a bit harder. It's particularly grating on the rather samey title track, a contemplative ballad of no real distinction, it highlights the lack of depth on this disc. After a reasonable but hardly awe-inspiring opening Lennon loses his way somewhat with the directionless 'Spectacle' and the throwaway whimsy of 'Tomorrow'. After the instantly forgettable 'On Again, Off Again' some of the lost ground is recovered with the anthemic power pop of 'Headlights'. This track highlights quite clearly how proceedings would have benefitted from a little more added grit. The oddly disconcerting 'Would I Be The One' is another example of this, recalling the vastly under-rated power-poppers The Posies, this number adds further weight to the argument whilst simultaneously proving that a little experimentalism goes a long way. The clever use of multi-tracked vocals, a rare but impressive guitar solo (around the 3.15 mark) and a neat string arrangement all combine to punchy effect. The lazy and worryingly M.O.R. ballad 'Falling Out Of Love' brings proceedings to a rather premature and ultimately unsatisfying close though, encompassing the flaws of 'Friendly Fire'.
Under the circumstances this is a rather disappointing album, there are fleeting glimpses of slacker-pop greatness but considering the eight year wait one would expect a greater level of quality control. Maybe Lennon will hit his stride now he's got the difficult second album out of the way, we may not find out until 2014 though!