Channelling Montreal cool and Post-Punk edge on their debut LP
Canadian band The Fake Friends have just launched their first full-length album, ‘Let’s Not Overthink This’ via Stomp Records, and it’s a powerful statement! The Montreal six piece, founded by vocalist Matthew Savage in 2020, had a pretty high turnover of personnel before he decided that playing with the people he knew all along was the easiest way to go. They’ve supported, among others, The Gimme Gimmes and Buzzcocks, and that quality is displayed here, a confidence and self-deprecating attitude, and a knowledge that they have found a rhythm that suits them in both personality and style.
The Fake Friends are:
Matthew Savage – Vocals
Felix Crawford-Legault – Guitar
Luca Santilli – Guitar
Michael Kamps – Bass
Bradley Cooper-Graham – Keyboards, vocals
Michael Tomizzi – Drums
There’s a real mixture of influences on display across the eleven songs, or that’s my interpretation anyway, with bits of Talking Heads, The Strokes, Buzzcocks, OK Go and even Arctic Monkeys coming to the fore. The closing track ‘Good Friends’ does remind me of Fugazi’s ‘I’m So Tired’ – with a little more vitriol! That’s a list that shouldn’t really work, but in ‘Let’s Not Overthink This’ the various elements meld together to form a pleasing result.
The record opens with ‘Ministry Of Peace’, a jittery broadcast that lifts its antenna toward media noise and cultural static. Savage repeats “no truce” as the song tightens around him, guitars slicing through the haze. It sets up the album’s central theme: trying to hold onto yourself while the night tilts in every direction. ‘Sucker Born Every Minute’ takes that momentum and swings it wide, mixing melodic punch with the kind of self-aware venom that comes from knowing your own patterns too well. ‘The Way She Goes’ cools everything down, leaning into sleek guitar lines and late-night restraint, sitting in that tension between desire and self-sabotage that the band nails so well.
There’s a humour and sense of fun, the sound of six people enjoying being in each other’s company. Having said that, ‘Five Star Review’ does feel like a diss track to rival all diss tracks!
At the album’s centre sits ‘Hyperconnection’, the album’s nervous heartbeat. It is a tight, shimmering track that balances wit and anxiety without blinking. Savage rolls his eyes at astrology, chokes on long books, and stumbles through mixed signals while the band locks into a groove that feels like the inside of a crowded room. The mantra “all eyes on me” loops until it stops sounding like confidence and starts sounding like pressure. It is the clearest statement of what the record does best, turning everyday absurdity into something cathartic, catchy, and just a little unhinged.
As ‘Let’s Not Overthink This’ unfolds, the emotional temperature rises and falls in waves. ‘Control‘ slows the pace, letting keys drift over a beat that feels like walking home too fast in the cold. ‘Living The Dream’ twists a familiar phrase into something queasier, all shakes and repetition, half in the moment and half out of it. ‘Backstreet’s Back pt. II’ leans into darker swagger, a song that feels haunted without ever naming the ghost. Further down, ‘Dance On My Grave’ becomes a strange celebration, a grin in the mirror after the worst night of your life, and ‘Good Friends’ closes the record by stripping everything back to piano, voices, and one last bitter truth: “you fuckin’ hate this town.”
The record flows, there’s a balance and continuity to it; it embraces the listener like a mix tape made for the whole world and that is something I really enjoyed. It’s an album that doesn’t need multiple revisits to feel comfortable with, something that I feel too many bands struggle with.
To quote a line from ‘Five Star Review’ – “I came in, I brought the sauce”. I feel there’s enough sauce here for a very palatable serving. When it comes to listening to the record, it all boils down to having a good time; The Fake Friends would rather that you just not overthink it.
Stream, download or buy ‘Let’s Not Overthink This’ HERE
Main Photo Credit: NICK PEGG
- Ministry of Peace
- Sucker Born Every Minute
- The Way She Goes
- Control
- Five Star Review
- Living The Dream
- Backstreet’s Back pt. II
- Hyperconnection
- If It Happens
- Dance On My Grave
- Good Friends
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