Friendly Fires Announce New Album Dig Deeper And Share New Single “Magnetic”

Friendly Fires have announced their long awaited fourth album, Dig Deeper, set for release on 15th January 2027 through LAB Records.

Alongside the announcement, Friendly Fires have shared the album’s lead single, “Magnetic,” and confirmed that Friendly Fires will play an intimate London show at Moth Club, plus a run of EU live dates.

Fans can sign up now for a chance to get tickets to the Friendly Fires show at Moth Club, taking place on Thursday 24th September. Signing up also grants exclusive access to purchase a limited edition Dig Deeper bundle featuring live tracks recorded at that show, with the presale window opening at 9am BST on Friday 18th September.

Dig Deeper is the fourth studio album from Friendly Fires, and it lives up to its title in more ways than one. It is the sound of one of the world’s best loved indie dance bands doubling down on what makes Friendly Fires so distinctive, delivered by two childhood best mates who have spent years quietly perfecting their craft.

Friendly Fires have long sat at the crossroads of indie rock and dance music, and Dig Deeper leans further into that hybrid sound than ever before.

Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson formed Friendly Fires while still at school, and Dig Deeper finds the pair peeling back the layers to make their most profound Friendly Fires music yet. The album arrives after nearly a decade of Friendly Fires working on new material largely out of public view.

“This is some of the best music we’ve written. Doing something truly honest, putting it out there and hoping it connects with people, that feels like a huge leap of faith for us.”

At one point, the future of Friendly Fires felt genuinely uncertain. There were lengthy gaps between Friendly Fires records, doubts, and crises of confidence, and for a while it was not clear whether a fourth Friendly Fires album would happen at all.

“We had 100 ideas that never saw the light of day and songs that were finished but still didn’t feel right. We were unsure about what the point of this was and what we’re about.”

Since forming, Friendly Fires have released three widely acclaimed albums, starting with their self titled debut in 2008, which earned Friendly Fires a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Pala followed in 2011, and the equally praised Inflorescent arrived in 2019, but a fourth Friendly Fires record proved elusive for a long time after that.

Eventually, Macfarlane and Gibson found a way to get looser with the Friendly Fires songwriting process, stepping back from overthinking to drill down into what Friendly Fires is really about.

Personal material surfaced too, including the loss of a friend when they were younger, and the death of a close friend of Macfarlane’s during the making of this record.

“We blasted back through the archives and reminded ourselves what Friendly Fires are all about. There was definitely a conscious effort to come back to what we were about in the first place.”

That process of rediscovery extended to the influences at the heart of the Friendly Fires sound. Macfarlane and Gibson drew up a huge playlist of indie dance music spanning the decades, from 70s Talking Heads and New Order through to the Balearic and baggy sounds of the late 80s, and on to the short lived mid 2000s London scene known as nu rave, which Friendly Fires skirted the edges of at the time.

Dig Deeper was mixed by James Dring, known for his work with Jamie T and Gorillaz, and those reference points surface throughout the new Friendly Fires record. Opening track “Lose All Your Friends” carries echoes of the Madchester sound, closing track “Wear It Out” nods to Screamadelica, and other songs lean into the cosmic chug of the DFA Records scene that emerged in New York after the Strokes.

The result is some of the most ambitious and bombastic material Friendly Fires have made, packed with sweeping choruses, serene falsetto, supercharged euphoria, hypnotic dance grooves, and the kind of cowbell workouts that have long been a Friendly Fires signature.

Lead single “Magnetic” captures that Friendly Fires spirit well. Speaking about the track, Friendly Fires said: “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. Can you ever take charge over something so powerful?”

Before Dig Deeper lands, Friendly Fires will play a run of shows in support of Two Door Cinema Club across the UK and US this September, alongside the Moth Club date. Here are the confirmed Friendly Fires live dates for 2026:

24 Sept – Moth Club, London, UK
27 Sept – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA (supporting Two Door Cinema Club)
28 Sept – Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY, USA – SOLD OUT
29 Sept – MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Boston, MA, USA (supporting Two Door Cinema Club)

Once the new album is out, Friendly Fires head to mainland Europe for a short run of January 2027 shows. Tickets for the Friendly Fires EU dates are available here.

26 Jan – Frannz Club, Berlin, Germany
27 Jan – Paradiso Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, Netherlands
28 Jan – La Maroquinerie, Paris, France

Dig Deeper will be released on 15th January 2027 through LAB Records, and the full tracklisting for the new Friendly Fires album is as follows:

1. Lose All Your Friends
2. Leap of Faith
3. Gold Dust
4. Magnetic
5. Dig Deeper
6. Orbital
7. Silver Lining
8. Cuban Heels
9. SYOTOS
10. Catherine Wheel
11. Wear It Out

With Dig Deeper, Friendly Fires sound like a band that has fully reconnected with itself, ready to reclaim its place at the top table of British pop. Friendly Fires are back, and Dig Deeper sounds like it.