Funeral For A Friend - 'Memory And Humanity' (Join Us) Released 13/10/08

In order to truly do Funeral For a Friend’s newest long player any amount of justice, we need to head back to the beginning. For in those very early days, holds the very key to the band’s later success. It’s not often we can profess adoration for a band from the word go, but since early 2002, we’ve been pretty much hooked. You see Funeral For a Friend are not like every ‘scene’ band. And we’re not even saying that they are a scene band. But it’s pretty obvious that back in 2002, there was a scene - to be capitalised on. It wasn’t necessarily a hardcore scene, but its participants were wearing Trucker hats and converse and grey hoodies, and listening to Drive Thru records, AFI, Taking Back Sunday and/or Victory Records. They were probably hanging out in shopping malls, waiting for a British band to rival all the bands they love that never came to England, because they were on indie labels that didn’t have the money to send them out here!
 
Then along came Funeral For a Friend, not far behind Lost Prophets, and where Lost Prophets were selling themselves out to Nike by donning the trainers that would make or break the faux hardcore/ pop punk scene back in 2003, Funeral For a Friend, were their slightly less attractive, but far more talented, cousins. Where Ian Watkins was getting off with that twat off Top of the Pops, Matt Davies was thinking about what he was going to get his future wife for Valentine’s Day. From the word “go”, we loved them. ‘Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation’ was pretty much the album of that autumn (2003 if you must know), it was everything we were looking for; these British rock men folk were going to take on our American friends. We didn’t know at the time that the album was made in six weeks, off the back of their noted Kerrang front cover (nor did we care – we didn’t have the money in those days to buy Kerrang). We just knew that there were some great songs on that album, and we weren’t parting with it anytime soon.
 
So after they signed their lives away to East West who were, unfortunately for the band, bought out by Atlantic Records (who, it is no secret that, the band did not always see eye to eye with); both ‘Hours’ (2005) and ‘Tales Don’t Tell Themselves’ (2007) were released on that label before the band parted ways with them in 2007. Today, we come to the release of their fourth studio album, ‘Memory and Humanity’, released on the band’s own label; a label that all 5 members have a 1/5 share in; a label that they’ve created themselves. The album has distribution via heavyweight independent rock label, Victory Records in the US and Canada, and Roadrunner in the rest of the world. They’ve got something good and authentic going on here. As some of our favourite bands are leaving majors in favour of independents; for example, in the last month bands such as New Found Glory have left their major label deals far behind them in the smoke and joined the ranks of Epitaph (an independent); Funeral For a Friend are taking this further, and releasing their material their own way, meaning they have complete control over its licensing and distribution, which is something you, unfortunately, cannot boast on a major label deal.
 
So there’s your bit of context, but what of the actual product? Is ‘Memory and Humanity’ a nod back to their earlier work, a fateful drive back down memory lane? Actually, yes, it is. We say that without a hint of bias, because although their previous two albums (both ‘Hours’ and ‘Tales’) were for intents and purposes relative critical successes, there is a sense on both that there was something missing from the original ‘Casually Dressed’ model. That they’ve done something good, but it doesn’t quite match that “original”. You see it with a lot of bands. When their first album is a massive commercial and critical success, they spend their entire careers trying to recreate that moment in time, where that record is situated. And a lot of the time they fail. Oh but this year is different, if Story of the Year can leave ‘Page Avenue’ firmly in the shadows (with this year’s release of ‘The Black Swan’) then so too can FFAF. ‘Memory and Humanity’ is wonderful. Mainly because there are moments on the album that absolutely reek of what we first loved about them back in those early days spent sipping Shakeway milkshakes outside the shopping centre. For example, ‘To Die Like Mouchette’ exhibits more than a hint of ‘Escape Artists Never Die’. Similarly ‘You Can’t See the Forest for the Trees’ is very ‘You Revolution is a Joke’. But whilst we wouldn’t for a second, presume that FFAF are rewriting the canon they themselves created, there are additions and the songs are more ambitious, biting, ‘Kicking and Screaming’ for your attention.
 
The only criticism we will fly at FFAF is the fact that they now seem so accomplished in what they are doing, that they definitely do have a signature sound. This album, in the words of Matt Davies himself, is “very Funeral for a Friend”. We personally do not think this is a bad thing, but if you’re not a fan of their earlier work, there is absolutely no point in parting with your hard earned cash on this one. I mean we love them, but we can force you to!