Albums by this artist

We Are Your Friends (2002)

Simian

We Are Your Friends

---

» JEFF GRAY | STAFF WRITER

Simian We Are Your Friends Astralwerks, 2002 RiYL: The Beta Band, Tears for Fears

"We are your friends / You'll never be alone again," exult Simian on their second album. They're in now and you're not going to be able to get them out, so you might as well be pals. They're catchy enough to see to that, even if they've also got the kitsch to make you want to boot them out onto the street.

We Are Your Friends' 12 tracks are an experiment in how catchy pop music can be. Most songs exhaust themselves before three-and-a-half minutes, and every one has a hopped-up peak that debuts early and returns often and a sing-along chorus that you can't ignore. It's a strange move for the band after a much more opaque debut (2001's psychedelic Chemistry Is What We Are) that gave them some credibility in "serious" rock circles.

This isn't Britney-pop, though. There are real rock songs lurking close under the skin, betrayed by driving rock beats and bass and synth fills that keep the music from sounding too clean. A dirty, fuzzy synthesizer is, in fact, the album's dominant sound. Its overuse is also the album's weakpoint, giving a number of the less memorable tracks (like "Sunshine" and "Big Black Gun") an overly-similar sound.

The album's opener, "La Breeze," is its best song. It starts with a Bollywood-sounding looped harmony before developing a big beat and bigger, belting vocals that are nothing short of triumphant. Contrast that with the slick wah-wah production on "The Way I Live," the album's nastiest song, as it drum machines itself way to a bile-venting: "I just don't like the things that you do". "She's In Mind" sounds like "Strawberry Fields Forever" gone to the haunted fun house.

There might not be a lot of subtlety here: a number of the songs are about breeze and sunshine and friends; even the album cover is a garish yellow. But maybe there is, and maybe after a few listens the nastiness lurking under the surface gets more threatening. In any case, even if great hooks aren't subtle, they aren't easy to manufacture, and Simian's managed to assemble more than a handful on We Are Your Friends. It might be a guilty pleasure, but it's a pleasure nonetheless.

JEFF GRAY | Jeff Gray used to be an important mover and shaker in Chicago, but gave all that up to live on a beach in rural Hawaii. You'll notice him if you're there, he's the one who's very tall and a little bit sunburned. His musical tastes tend towards the mainstream -- Phish, Radiohead, The Strokes -- but he'll argue to the death that those bands are mainstream because they're 100% awesome. Jeff's always on the lookout for the next great pop song, tidbits about Michigan football, and 80's action movies on cable.