Saturday 14 November 2026
Indie-dance duo Friendly Fires have shared ‘Gold Dust’, the latest preview of their long-awaited fourth album Dig Deeper. The record is out on 15 January 2027 through LAB Records, and the band will celebrate with ten UK album release shows, starting at Circuit in Kingston the night before. Several of those shows are already marked as low on tickets. Here’s what you need to know.
1. ‘Gold Dust’ is about a love you haven’t met yet
The band say the song starts from a Japanese idea: “In Japan Koi No Yokan means the premonition of love – an unspoken sense that this person will matter greatly to your life, even if the romance has yet to bloom.” ‘Gold Dust’ goes one step further and imagines a person you have never actually met, someone who exists only in dreams and waking visions but still feels entirely real and familiar. As the band put it: “To ever realise it would be as precious as finding gold dust.” They sum up the song’s message in one line: “Something as rare as true love has to be worth waiting for.”
2. It’s the third song from Dig Deeper
‘Gold Dust’ follows ‘Magnetic’ and ‘Lose All Your Friends’ as the third new track from the album, and ‘Lose All Your Friends’ is currently on the BBC 6 Music playlist. The band describe ‘Magnetic’ like this: “Attraction is a force so strong it can be beyond our control. What we want and what we should do aren’t always the same.” Dig Deeper has eleven tracks. ‘Lose All Your Friends’ opens the album and ‘Wear It Out’ closes it, with ‘Gold Dust’ at number three. Other songs include ‘Leap of Faith’, ‘Orbital’, ‘Silver Lining’, ‘Cuban Heels’, ‘SYOTOS’, ‘Catherine Wheel’ and the title track.
3. Nearly a decade in the making
Friendly Fires are childhood best friends Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson. They have released three acclaimed albums: their Mercury Music Prize-nominated self-titled debut in 2008, Pala in 2011 and Inflorescent in 2019. The fourth was a struggle, and the pair worked on new material for nearly a decade. “We had 100 ideas that never saw the light of day and songs that were finished but still didn’t feel right,” says Macfarlane. In the end they loosened up their songwriting and wrote about personal subjects they had never discussed before, including the deaths of friends. “This is some of the best music we’ve written,” Macfarlane says.
4. A love letter to indie-dance history
To make Dig Deeper, the duo built a huge playlist of indie-dance bands from different eras. It ran from 70s Talking Heads and New Order through the Balearic and baggy late 80s to mid-2000s London nu-rave. “We blasted back through the archives and reminded ourselves what Friendly Fires are all about,” says Gibson. You can hear echoes of the Madchester sound on the opening track, a nod to Screamadelica on ‘Wear It Out’, and the cosmic chug of DFA Records-era New York elsewhere. The album was mixed by James Dring, whose credits include Jamie T and Gorillaz, and the band promise big choruses, falsetto, hypnotic grooves and cowbell workouts.
5. Ten album release shows, starting in Kingston
Last month the band played an intimate sold-out show at London’s Moth Club. Fans heard new music alongside hits including ‘Jump In The Pool’, ‘Love Like Waves’, ‘Skeleton Boy’, ‘Paris’ and ‘Hawaiian Air’. Next comes a run of ten UK album release shows with independent record shops. It starts at Circuit in Kingston with Banquet Records on Thursday 14 January 2027, then goes to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bristol before ending at Chalk in Brighton on 31 January. Kingston, Manchester and Liverpool are already listed as low on tickets, so book soon if you want to go.
Tickets and info
Dig Deeper is out Friday 15 January 2027 on LAB Records
14 Jan – Circuit, Kingston (with Banquet Records) – low tickets
15 Jan – Gorilla, Manchester (with Crash Records) – low tickets
16 Jan – Jacaranda, Liverpool (with Jacaranda Records) – low tickets
18 Jan – Wardrobe, Leeds (with Crash Records)
19 Jan – Newcastle Uni, Newcastle (with Reflex Records)
20 Jan – Oran Mor, Glasgow (with Assai Records)
22 Jan – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham (with Rough Trade)
23 Jan – XOYO, Birmingham (with Jacaranda Records)
24 Jan – Thekla, Bristol (with Rough Trade)
31 Jan – Chalk, Brighton (with Resident Records)