Friendship
Love the Stranger
Merge Records
2022
Right from the get-go, Love the Stranger by Friendship reveals Dan Wriggins is a songwriter who understands the importance of small moments. In those moments, much is revealed about his character and how they may loom much larger than they might at first appear. The opening lines of “St. Bonaventure” illustrate that in spades, “Still swinging on my vine/ Still getting up every day/ keep from brooding/ keep it moving ‘til the end of the week.” Following a cockeyed sliding steel guitar solo, Wriggins continues, “Meant to write down what I was feeling in the moment/ Thinking ‘man you better get it just like it was/ Or else you’re gonna forget it.” That notion of not missing the small stuff gets to the heart of their songs—small moments matter.
Some of those moments are remarkably small, like the gentle groove of “Blue Canoe,” which in 21-seconds roots them in country traditions while putting them outside of them with some more off-kilter guitar. But Wriggins doesn’t do this all alone; Michael Cormier-O’Leary plays drums, while Jon Samuels adds the bass riffs, and Peter Gill plays guitar and pedal steel. Together they play various configurations in several different bands, yet there is something about Friendship that seems to bind the four.
Over 17 tracks (four songs under a minute, while a fifth clocks in at just 1:05), they display a range of styles that keep things interesting, although they tend to head in decidedly less commercial directions. Mixing things up, “Hank” seems like a straightforward country tune, yet along the way, a synthesised string section battles against other synth sounds before the song ends, making you realise this isn’t quite as simple as it initially seemed.
Moments rise and fall as the band plays on. At points, Wriggins’ voice has tones like Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner, while the music circles around a more rustic country style. Dominated by keyboards, “Alive Twice” tells the tale of being set straight by advice that is on the nose and how that can make all the difference in the world, “Like being alive twice.”
Opening with a marching drum refrain before heading into a straight-forward countryish tune, “Mr. Chill” features steel guitar. “I didn’t realize I was hanging out with Mr. Chill/ You be real with me and I’ll be real.” Yet there are moments of sadness mixed in, “What can a poor kid do to keep busy/ Because I still need to love this little world/ I can tell you so I can’t tell anyone else/ because you don’t fret the help.” This is music that lets out emotions others might keep locked up, yet Wriggins isn’t afraid to let them loose.
Playing without prejudice, showing scenes of ugliness rather than merely keeping things light, Friendship set their sights on telling the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts as it does on “Ugly Little Victory.” “I can’t stop, too/ And I also need you/ It sucks when it ends/ And it sucks when it has no end/ What an irritating mystery.”
Sometimes the American dream is more of a nightmare, and Friendship looks at the world, talking about the dream as it is. Sometimes it’s not pretty. But it’s real. Friendship’s Love the Stranger offers the opportunity to realise that these moments aren’t the whole story, just one that needs to be heard.
Love the Stranger is released on 29 July via Merge Records