Funeral for a Friend - Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009

Seven years ago, five boys from Bridgend, South Wales decided to form a band. Their aim was simple: to write songs about real experiences that connected with their audience, and to have fun along the way. That band was Funeral for a Friend, and this, their greatest hits, chronicles that journey. Spanning from their very first EP right through to four brand new, previously unreleased tracks, this is an essential collection for fans and newcomers alike.

Opener 10.45 Amsterdam Conversation sees the band in its rawest form, coming from their very first EP, Between Order and Model. When released, Bridgend was better known for producing talent such as Bullet for my Valentine, and BBC newsreader Huw Edwards. But Funeral for a Friend were about to change all that…

As the compilation moves through second EP Four Ways To Scream Your Name, and into the territory of their first album, Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation, it is easy to hear how the band has progressed, becoming tighter and more comfortable in their collective identity. Tracks like Juneau and Red Is the New Black ooze much slicker production values than before, and show a real development in songwriting.

Funeral for a Friend’s transition from debut to sophomore outing Hours is less apparent, but is there nevertheless. The band clearly upped their game in an effort to shake the cliché of the ‘difficult second album’, and returned with a slightly more mature sound, but retaining the catchy choruses and post-hardcore riffs fans had come to expect. The songs from this era of the band’s history are perhaps their most loved; History and Streetcar regularly gracing setlists at the band’s gigs.

Less time is spent dwelling on the bands third and fourth albums, Tales Don’t Tell Themselves and Memory and Humanity respectively. Although only three tracks are taken from the two albums, they explore the band’s more melodic and ‘poppier’ side, as the band experiments with strings and piano featuring prominently in the track included.

It is then that the album leads on to the final segment: an EP’s worth of new material. With the departure of bassist Gareth Ellis-Davies and introduction of Gavin Burrough, the new songs mark the next step in the band’s already impressive career. Mixing the raw power and explosive noise found on their first releases, with the melodic aspect of their later work, Funeral for a Friend have once again taken their sound in new, and exciting, directions.

Throughout their seven year existence, Funeral for a Friend have toured the world, written some killer music and, most importantly, had fun. With this anthology of old meets new, they end one chapter of their career and begin another. Perhaps drummer Ryan Richards sums it up best: “[The album] feels like a bridge to something else. The album is the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. And, when we think about that future, the band feels better than it has in a long time. It feels like something new and special has begun.”


Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009 is released on the 28th September via Atlantic Records.
More information can be found at www.myspace.com/funeralforafriend

ES