Just about every person in college that I know has studied abroad, has plans to study abroad, or has a BFF who’s studied abroad and told you all about their amazing experience wearing a backpack, staying at a hostel, and riding a train. So it’s not very hard to relate to these lyrics in this song about packing your bags and losing yourself in a foreign city. UK’s Friendly Fires take all those wonderful international travel experiences and puts it into a glistening dance-pop song about the “city of lights.”
So what if the lyrics in the chorus are ridiculously cliché and seem to be taken directly from Coldplay’s “Yellow.” The lively, extravagant drumming, infectious dance beat, and soaring vocals more than make up for it. Sonically there’s a good blend of trancey dance beats, anthemic post-punk, and atmospheric shoegaze. This is sunny pleasure pop at it’s best. And is that a cowbell I hear? Friendly Fires, before you’re done here, y’all be wearing gold-plated diapers.
Also, I highly recommend checking out the Aeroplane Remix of “Paris” which features the wonderful dream-pop trio Au Revoir Simone on vox. You internet-saavy readers shouldn’t have any trouble finding it online.
Recommended If You Like: Klaxons, The Rapture, Bloc Party
