Friendly Fires continue the build-up to their long-awaited fourth album with the release of new single Gold Dust, accompanied by an official music video. The track is the third preview of Dig Deeper, which arrives on 15th January 2027 through LAB Records, and follows previously released singles Magnetic and Lose All Your Friends.
The new single explores the idea of a love that feels destined but remains just out of reach. Drawing inspiration from the Japanese expression Koi No Yokan, which describes the premonition that someone will become important in your life before a romance has even begun, Gold Dust considers the intensity of feeling connected to someone who exists only in dreams and imagined encounters.
Friendly Fires
Explaining the thinking behind the song, the band say: “In Japan Koi No Yokan means the premonition of love – an unspoken sense that this person will matter greatly to your life, even if the romance has yet to bloom. “But what if you have never met this person? They exist in your dreams and waking visions, but they feel entirely real and so familiar. You know this is something you will have to wait for, totally out of your control. To ever realise it would be as precious as finding gold dust. “Something as rare as true love has to be worth waiting for.”
The release comes as anticipation builds for Dig Deeper, the first new album from Friendly Fires since 2019’s Inflorescent. For childhood friends Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson, the record represents a renewed sense of creative confidence after nearly a decade spent developing ideas, questioning their direction and searching for the right way forward.
The pair initially found themselves with a wealth of unfinished possibilities, including songs that had been completed but never felt quite right. Rather than continue to overthink the process, they began stripping their approach back, concentrating on the core of what made the band distinctive. That meant revisiting their extensive archive of demos and recordings, rediscovering the musical identity that first brought them together and allowing themselves greater freedom in the writing process.
The album also draws on more personal experiences. Conversations between the two friends opened up subjects they had rarely discussed before, including the loss of people close to them. Those reflections have helped give the new material an emotional depth that sits alongside the band’s instinct for euphoric, dancefloor-ready indie pop.
Musically, Dig Deeper embraces the influences that have shaped Friendly Fires throughout their career. From the angular rhythms of Talking Heads and New Order to the Balearic and baggy sounds of the late 1980s, the record looks across several generations of alternative dance music. The band also revisit the mid-2000s nu-rave era, alongside the New York dance-rock sound associated with DFA Records.
The album’s opening track, Lose Your Friends, carries echoes of the Madchester movement, while closer Wear It Out nods towards Primal Scream’s landmark Screamadelica. Mixed by James Dring, whose credits include Jamie T and Gorillaz, the record brings those influences together in a collection built around sweeping choruses, falsetto vocals, hypnotic grooves and expansive dance rhythms.
For Friendly Fires, the album is both a reconnection with their musical roots and a statement of renewed purpose. Their self-titled 2008 debut earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination, followed by 2011’s Pala and Inflorescent in 2019. With Dig Deeper, the duo are looking to build on that history while pushing their songwriting into more personal and ambitious territory. “This is some of the best music we’ve written,” says Ed Macfarlane. “Doing something truly honest, putting it out there and hoping it connects with people – that feels like a huge leap of faith for us.”
The band recently gave fans an intimate preview of the new material at a sold-out show at London’s Moth Club, where the set combined new songs with favourites including Jump In The Pool, Love Like Waves, Skeleton Boy, Paris and Hawaiian Air.
They will return to the road in January for ten special album release shows across the UK, beginning at Kingston’s Circuit on 14th January, the day before Dig Deeper is released. The run takes in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and Brighton, with the shows presented in partnership with independent record shops including Banquet Records, Crash Records, Jacaranda Records, Reflex Records, Assai Records, Rough Trade and Resident Records.
Upcoming UK Live Dates:
JANUARY
14th – Kingston, Circuit
15th – Manchester, Gorilla
16th – Liverpool, Jacaranda
18th – Leeds, Wardrobe
19th – Newcastle, Newcastle University
20th – Glasgow, Oran Mor
22nd – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
23rd – Birmingham, XOYO
24th – Bristol, Thekla
31st – Brighton, Chalk
Orville Peck Delivers A Night Of Stories Sweat And Songs At O2 Forum Kentish Town
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