Boy Friend – Egyptian Wrinkle

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 26 Jan 2012
Album title: Egyptian Wrinkle
Artist: Boy Friend
Label: Hell, Yes!
Release date: 6 Feb

Those looking for a short-cut introduction to Boy Friend’s sound could do worse than track down their cover of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man after Midnight) online. Slowed a beat, with glassy vocals draped across woozy synth washes, Christa Palazzolo and Sarah Brown transform the overly-familiar ABBA standard (thanks, Mamma sodding Mia) into something fresh, without sacrificing the track’s finer qualities amidst the serene coos and tasteful echoes.

This balance between esoteric atmospherics and pop accessibility is carried across to the duo’s ten track debut, its somnambulist drift reminiscent of an extra-dreamy Cults, or Blouse after a mitt-full of Nytol. It’s a winning combination – and, unlike Stephanie Franciotti’s more abstract, shrouded Sleep ∞ Over project, with whom Palazzolo and Brown used to play, Boy Friend are comfortable piercing the ambience with some straight-up emoting; see, for instance, In Case, a torch song Shakespear’s Sister would be proud to call their own.

http://boyfriendmusic.bandcamp.com