I couldn't figure out how to write about Sean Lennon's music without writing about his dad. It was like having to mention Garfunkel when you solely wanted to talk about Simon. Or mentioning one member of Monty Python without referring endlessly to MP sketches. I couldn't figure, also, whether it mattered or not, this tight-lip about the dad. I thought things like, 'The bass, namely "Tomorrow," sounds McCartney-like. But don't say that.'

Friendly Fire is full of the bittersweet; pop on a stomach ache. There's a painful drone to it's melodies, which change key repeatedly throughout the course of a song but more or less mimic themselves, circling and building momentum. ('Spectacle' being the prime example.) Mostly an acoustic guitar,bass,drum kit,piano affair – with swirls and splotches of orchestration, violin, organ, handclaps – the album is a series of subtle affairs that gradually become big deals, head-turning, foot-stomping. Relentless minor chords continually prevail over all granduer. Occassional whirs and blips put stars in the sky.

'The one thing I'm afraid of is falling out of love,' goes the closer, which begins like stepping out the door after a rainfall and whose last thirty seconds climax like everyone else has forgotten how to bring an album to a head. A climax, in its own way, as victorious as Dark Side or Figure 8. 'Don't mention the E-chord closing Sgt. Pepper,' I think.