Friendly Fires Return as a Two-Piece With First New Music in Seven Years

Seven years is a long silence for a band once built on relentless momentum. Friendly Fires end theirs today with ‘Lose All Your Friends’, a single released through LAB Records and the first new material since 2019’s Inflorescent.

The St Albans group now operates as a duo. Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson have shed much of the high-gloss production that defined their earlier work. What remains is leaner: garage recordings, live drums, and an instinctive energy that pulls toward LCD Soundsystem and Panda Bear without copying either.

The song turns on a simple idea — take the wrong turn, lose your friends, and let the night decide where you end up. It’s a looser, more psychedelic impulse than the band has allowed itself before. “Sometimes you have to lose everything to start again,” they say in a statement. “Embrace the chaos. Take a chance. Don’t be afraid of change.”

That sentiment reads as more than lyrical colour. Friendly Fires built a career on precision and party-ready hooks. Stripping that back carries its own risk. ‘Lose All Your Friends’ suggests the band is comfortable with that uncertainty now, which may be exactly what a seven-year absence was for.