Best Fwends - 'Alphabetically Arranged' (Moshi Moshi) Released 11/06/07

Best Fwends have always been one of Moshi Moshi’s more innocently reckless, audibly petulant acts, bringing a playful unreconstructed edge to their toy-like drum-machine assisted mash-up of noisy beats and genre mangling (not to mention a wicked grin that suggests they’re getting away with it all). Theirs is a mischievous, nursery-rhyme friendly view of song structure and choruses also taken up these days by the likes of Lost Penguin, Bono Must Die and, cutest of all, Tiger Force on their recent (and wonderful) ‘A .php In A Jar’ LP.

But whereas the Tigers’ opening salvo was a riotous, sub-20 minute hit-and-run exercise in pop brevity, this CD here is a sprawling hour-long 34-track monster pf a party record. In the same way that Best Fwends’ songs are restless, confused, splatter-painting testaments to the benefits of Ritalin, ‘Alphabetically Arranged’ is both a debut album and a summation of the band’s career to date; the only attempt at cohesion here is the neat alphabetical track-listing, an honest reflection that without such a discipline any attempt to sequence such random, disparate tracks would likely test the sanity of even the most hardened Moshi head. As the band themselves say: “(the record) contains some of the best and worst songs we’ve made over the past four years. We’ll let you decide which is which”

For such a prolific band the ratio between fuzzy-pop gems and roughly-sketched filler is surprisingly balanced. The best songs here sound like a Riot Grrrl convention taking place in a 1980’s arcade, where all the kids are cheerleaders (‘Aaww Some’), The Ramones, if they grew up as a doo-wop band (‘Adultnap’) or Hot Chip on peak, deadpan geeky Kraftwerk-referencing form (‘Bump In The Night’). That’s without mentioning the numerous (well, about two) moments that recall fellow label-mates Tilly And The Wall, the collective rallying-calls of ‘Days Seem Shorter’ and ‘Orange Marker’ hinting that were Best Fwends to hone their (many) ideas and not get distracted so easily then they would be a band of some magnitude.

Which would be missing the point. We have enough slick chart-friendly bands for one year thanks. And doesn’t the idea of Bonde Do Role, Beck and Beastie Boys (to name just the Bs) playing a mid-80s block party with nothing but a retarded Speak & Spell sound like no less than the best thing ever?! As the last line of ‘Greetings To You’ declares: “Thank you Best Fwends! Everyone praise Best Fwends! Everyone give them money! Do it now”