Fred Again.. has been on a journey. Over the last few years, he’s successfully – and seemingly effortlessly – pivoted from behind-the-scenes songwriter and producer (albeit one in demand by the likes of Ed Sheeran, BTS and Charli XCX) to the main event. He’s swiftly become one of the biggest names in electronic music and, just a few weeks ago, became the first dance act to headline Reading & Leeds following summers of steadily growing festival slots.
At the current peak of his ascent, the DJ and producer has returned with an album that plays to his strengths: making electronic music that appeals to the heart and soul as well as the feet. Like his ‘Actual Life’ series, the trilogy of albums that helped give him his breakthrough, ‘Ten Days’ is emotional and reflective, and gorgeously so.
Where ‘Actual Life’ was underpinned by a narrative of grief, this new record deals with another classic subject: the rise and fall of a relationship and the impact we have on each other’s lives, told through ten songs that each represent a different day over a period of time. “There’s been a lot of biggg mad crazy moments in the last year,” Fred (real name Fred Gibson) wrote on Instagram when he announced the album in August. “But basically all of these are about really very small quiet intimate moments. Some of them are like the most intensely joyful things I have felt, and some of them are the other side of things.”
That dichotomy is naturally felt across the two halves of ‘Ten Days’. On the first side, there are big swathes of blissed-out, balmy euphoria, like the Obongjayar-led ‘Adore U’, which brings the record bubbling to life, or ‘Just Stand There’, which is steered by Irish singer-songwriter Soak. The latter finds its guest vocalist delivering a spoken-word sermon on the power of someone saying “I love you”. “I just stand there and my one-bed apartment feels like a coliseum,” they share, comparing that feeling to the brilliantly specific “first crunch of Tayto cheese and onion crisps”. As they speak, Gibson’s production builds its layers up into something that reflects the heady rush of love: needling, messy, intricate, like it could collapse at any moment.
On the flip side, there’s the crumbling and dissolution, represented by the only true dud on the album in ‘I Saw You’. It suffers from appearing in the tracklist right after ‘Glow’ – one of the liveliest, truest dance tracks on the record that reunites Gibson with Four Tet and Skrillex, along with Duskus. But even without that rapturous song ahead of it, it feels like ‘I Saw You’ would fall flat anyway, as it lacks the spark of the album’s better offerings.
There are still some beautiful moments to be had in this half, though. ‘Where Will I Be’, a reworking of a 1995 Emmylou Harris song, mixes the poeticism of the original lyrics, emotively delivered by the country icon, with minimal, delicately utilised synths. The Joy Anonymous-featuring ‘Peace U Need’, meanwhile, offers an affecting idea: that even if things don’t turn out the way we’d hope, our legacy in someone’s life can still live on. “I let you take a piece of me,” its key line goes. “I hope you get the peace you need.”
‘Ten Days’ excels on two fronts – when Fred and his collaborators dig up a more interesting take on the influence of love, and when the producer turns his sights to the dancefloor. In the former category, there’s ‘Fear Less’, a stunning turn from Sampha that takes us into a scene in a car, anxieties soothed by a partner “on the passenger side”. In the latter, there’s ‘Places To Be’, the biggest mover on the album, guided by features from Anderson. Paak and Chika, and a beat akin to that of André 3000 and Kelis’ ‘Millionaire’. “There’s something about that song that just makes you wanna get up and bust a motherfucking move,” a voice declares in the middle – an incredibly accurate assessment.
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It would be easy for Gibson to take the attention and acclaim surrounding him and return on this album with by-the-numbers, floor-filling bangers. Instead, he pushes deeper and comes up with something that’s both poignant and fun in equal measure – a solid gold record that leans into the little moments and produces pure, emotional magic that will ensure many more “biggg mad crazy” times in Fred Again..’s future ahead.
Details
- Record label: Warner Music
- Release date: September 6, 2024