“Play Both Sides” is the latest release by Fragile Creatures, an outstanding English band based in Brighton. It’s their first piece of work in 2025, arriving as an adequate follow-up of “Punk Yacht” and “And Other Wild Things,” two incredible full-length albums released in 2017 and 2020 that you should also check out as soon as possible. Heavily promoted by “Chasing Hearts” and “Bad Smell”, two excellent singles that vividly showcase what you might expect from the remainder of the album, “Play Both Sides” showcases a natural progression of an already incredible band. Written and composed during the challenging lockdown period of 2020-2021, this album showcases some of the finest ideas and exceptional orchestrations colliding into a comprehensive collection of catchy, memorable, engaging songs, suitable not only for the longstanding fans of the band but also those music enthusiasts looking for tastefully assembled and flawlessly performed music. Lyrically, “Play Both Sides” explores themes of love, relationships, friendships, various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, so it’s a highly relatable material that will immediately resonate with the broader auditorium. Sonically, the band was profoundly inspired by the greats such as Pink Floyd, Al Green, Blur, Radiohead, and David Bowie yet each composition resonates with the recognizable Fragile Creatures’ signature moves. On this ear-appealing sonic voyage, you’ll stumble upon an entire amalgam of different but complementary music genres like alternative, indie rock, art rock, psychedelic rock, classic rock, synth rock, Britpop, power pop, and many more. They use all these elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. Therefore, these experimentations with different influences and complementary styles resulted in a memorable full-length that will immediately appeal to your ears.
Fragile Creatures expertly balances between modern and retro sound. Although their music almost dominantly resonates with modern production and innovative ideas in terms of songwriting and composing, there’s a vividly hearable touch of nostalgia lurking around, making this song even more hypnotic, addictive, and irresistible. They left no stone unturned while writing, composing, arranging, recording, and producing these tracks. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with profoundly detailed segments, finest ideas, and superb orchestrations. Each vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuver has its place and purpose here, making “Play Both Sides” worth repeating over and over again. As soon as you press play, you’ll notice how incredible vocal performance elevates everything to new heights, commands attention, and guides the listening apparatus from scratch to finish. The impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing everything Fragile Creatures intended to achieve with this material. Besides decorating every segment and instrumentation, these vocal harmonies contribute more emotional depth and complexity to already intricate song structures. Fragile Creatures thoroughly planned all the vocal arrangements, so you’ll also notice how the additional back vocals and singalongs uplift particular segments, giving that magnificent anthemic vibe. In the meantime, the interplay between guitar layers shapes such a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. Whether delivering almost clean chord progressions, harmonies, and melodies or shining with raw, abrasive, gritty, generously distorted riffs these guitar works sound divine, making this epic sonic voyage even more appealing to the ears. Sometimes progressive, sometimes calm, soothing, relaxing, and ethereal, the synths and keys contribute more detail and melody over the top. It’s nearly mindblowing how guitars and keys articulate together without overwhelming each other at all.
Of course, this album wouldn’t sound this good without a rock-solid rhythm section. You’ll hear how equally impressive, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines roar beneath the guitars and keys, providing more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while serving like a glue that binds all those mentioned orchestrations with rhythmic patterns. These low-ends are rich, deep, dense, and heavy, contributing more power and details to these tracks. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming based upon tastefully assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated, moderate beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics keep all those instrumentations in line while dictating groove and pace. You’ll hear how each hit of the snare, kick of the bass drum, and splash over the cymbals provide more complexity to already intricate songs. Fragile Creatures thought about everything while writing and composing this material, so if the guitars and keys play a significant role in shaping a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon, then the bass and drums serve as a backbone, holding everything together. This album is packed with some standout tracks like “Don’t Know What To Do,” “Bad Smell,” “Garden Of Eden,” “Raised By Fools,” “Mary,” “Chasing Hearts,” “Hold On,” and “Entitled To Love,” but you should pay close attention while listening to the entire album, because each composition carries many impressive moments that will immediately force you to repeat the entire listening experience.
Fragile Creatures has crafted a marvelous collection of catchy, memorable, engaging songs where calm, soothing, relaxing, psychedelic, ethereal ambiance collides with skillful musicianship and brilliant ideas. With so many impressive compositions, you’ll keep “Play Both Sides” so close to your heart and it will immediately become a staple in your playlist. Their experience, knowledge, skills, talent, and creativity are on full display here, so you should immediately place this masterpiece on your music radar. “Play Both Sides” is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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