Friends Like These by Dan Stirling
Thoughts on an album that brings together some of the best voices on the indie scene.
Hi Pal,
If you’re new here, welcome to our little corner. If you’re a regular, welcome too, thanks for being around.
If you pay attention to the Christian alternative music scene, you probably know Dan Stirling for his production and mixing. He is — in large parts — responsible for modern gems like The Eternal Son (2016) and Discovery (2018) by Rivers & Robots as well as more recent albums like In Times Like These (2023) by Praise Lubangu. So what happens when this creative mind gets a few friends together to make an album? That’s the question I hope to answer in this review of Friends Like These.
The album kicks off with “I Lift My Eyes” which features Praise Lubangu. Ethereal synths act as a backdrop to her soulful vocals on this alternative R&B track with strong electronic influences. Lyrically, the song is loosely inspired by Psalm 121 and is a confession of our security and help in Christ.
On “Holding On to You”, we have a chill pop tune with contemporary undertones that features Dâmares Gomes. The synths are a supporting act here — with the guitars being a tad more pronounced — but are still quite evident, as they are a mainstay for the entire album. “Clueless” features Cether, an alternative duo that I love for their compelling melodies and uplifting lyrics. They bring that energy into this song about the love of God with lines like this,
You’ve called me your friend
Greater love I haven’t found
You fill me up with joy
You fill me up with joy…
In your love, I know I can let it go
I was clueless
I was lost until your love came along
How I need you
For undiluted electronic goodness with hip-hop sensibilities, “The Mystery” is probably the best tune on this album. It features Civilized Creature and I love how I can hear their different styles reflected in the samples and the general mix and production of the song. “Only Jesus” is a prayer asking for Christ to be the centre of our lives and our ‘…treasure for all time…’ Nick Herbert’s voice on this is wonderful with a lovely tone in his upper register. I’m a bit of a nerd for things like that and I love this tune for it.
“Selah” is an instrumental interlude and it just makes me want an instrumental project from Dan Stirling. I love the pitch bend and reverb on it making it feel like a fusion between synthpop and post-rock. “Imposter” features Melissa Hale and she was the artist I was most unfamiliar with before this album. After this track, let’s just say that has changed.
On “Still”, we have Adryelle lending her voice to what is currently my synthpop tune of the past few months. It was released as a single last year and it still sounds as good as the first time. Without a doubt, “Let Go” is my favourite track on this album. I can’t resist a well-thought-out and executed indie rock song and Tom Read delivers on the vocals. It also has a timely message, as the title suggests, about letting go of broken things so that healing can begin.
The album ends with “Peace, Be Still”, another instrumental track that leans even further into the synthpop and post-rock allusions I made earlier. It wraps up this entire listening experience in a starry blanket that is equal parts warm and soothing.
There is a difference between an album and a collection of songs. For an album to work, it requires a basic level of cohesiveness and this can be difficult to achieve when numerous creative minds are working on it. I love the way Dan Stirling was able to create a sonic benchmark with the synths that allowed all the different creative styles to flourish and accentuated the quality of the end product.
Of course, I will always prefer some tunes to others and there are some artists — Adryelle, Civilized Creature and Tom Read — whose individual styles are already close enough to Dan’s to make for a seamless partnership. Still, he found a way to make everything flow and that is the brilliance of the album. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
Genre(s): Alternative Pop Fusion, Synthpop
Release Date: 16th February, 2024
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That’s it for today.
Catch you soon!
Feel free to leave a comment. Also, I am always open to hearing from you so feel free to send an email to me at stismavo@gmail.com