Hi Pal,
FYR FYTR (pronounced firefighter) is an indie rock project by Chris and Jessie Miller alongside their friends. I discovered their music sometime in 2022 with the track, Way That We Change
which motivated me to listen to their album release of that year, TWO. As with many projects I know that feature male and female vocal leads, I really enjoyed the way they tried to compose songs that suited each of their vocal styles.
Chris generally tends to be energetic, and his songs usually fall within the upbeat, post-punk-inspired soundscapes while Jessie’s smooth and soothing approach usually introduces some calming synth or dream pop aesthetic to the general mood of the songs she leads.
Of course, the above is a general observation and isn’t an attempt to restrict them to a creative box, especially considering the fact that there are quite a number of songs that are co-lead. Their 2023 album, THE GLORIOUS IN-BETWEEN, is a massive improvement on their 2022 offering and still remains one of my favourites of this year; with songs like Story of our Nation
and I Know That It Won’t Be Long
being memorable standouts.
Naturally, I wasn’t really expecting any new tunes this year, but they decided to bless us with when I was twenty
. The song is nostalgic and very much reminiscent of the dream pop and synth-wave resurgence that became prominent in the mid-2000s. It has punchy drums, an ethereal quality to the guitar licks and a tasteful bass progression that is quite memorable.
The biggest earworm of the song is certainly the chorus with the simple line,
Yeah, this is the shape of what’s to come…
As it usually is with dream pop/shoegaze tunes, lyrics are hardly the focus as the instrumentation takes centre stage and even on a song that is just a little over 3 minutes long, the outro is still over a minute long, giving the instruments a chance to really set to mood.
On their Instagram page, they said that this is an unofficial sequel to the song, Run For My Life
from their 2015 self-titled debut. A solid album in its own right, listening to it also made me appreciate how their sound has evolved over the years.
So perhaps, the best news is that this tune is the first single leading up to a new “living album of sorts” (their words, not mine). If this is any indication of what is to come, then I think FYR FYTR is about to take another massive leap forward.
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