136: Friendship - Free Association
There are a couple of Raymond Carver stories that are seared into my brain, not just the words or the sentiments but the worlds I created around them too. When I think of them even now, I see the faces of characters, the light spreading across private rooms, images conjured by my brain but built to last. Poems and songs ask that from us, it's a part of the process, a give and a take. Songs do it less so, but it can still happen.
It's always happened for me with Friendship, since we first wrote about them a decade-ish ago. Led by Dan Wriggins (himself now a published poet), their songs are full of literary grace and full of considered space, key ingredients when it comes to us, the listener, building our own kinds of worlds around a song. Wriggins himself has always felt something of a character, that gravely voice always seemingly on the very cusp of love and loss.
Rounded out with texture and grace by Peter Gill, Michael Cormier-O’Leary, and Jon Samuels, the Philadelphia band have been long-term GFP favourites, the world-weary, full o' wry heft of their songwriting responsible for some of our very favourite releases over the past few years: subtle glimmers of Berman, Molina, and others.
Close to three-years on from their previous LP, the wonderful Love the Stranger, the band have just announced that their newest collection, Caveman Wakes Up, will be released in the middle of May, once again via Merge Records. In tandem comes the album's first single - and Free Association immediately feels settled among the very best of their work.
"Thought I was wise, thought I knew about love
Cleaning out your garage, said "where’d you get all this stuff?”
I used to have someone, she would get home from work
We’d put something on and complain about work,"
Wriggins sings, immediately framing the song as a snapshot of a wider story. A gorgeous four-and-a-half minutes, the gentle ache of the lyrics is matched by the compelling nature of the musical backdrop, a blossoming of colour sprinkled with strings, small hints of brass; unexpected glitches of intriguing otherness.
"Now I’m transported by nеon waterfall sign
You’re floating over anothеr minute of your life
White foamy light, churning all the time
Order at the bar, chaos outside."
Such a treat. On a good night, always such a treat.
Pre-order the album now, via Bandcamp
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