Friendship Commanders' newest single, “FOUND,” might be their most unrelenting statement yet. Falling ahead of their upcoming fourth full-length record, "BEAR," out via Magnetic Eye Records, it provides a primal response to the album’s unifying theme, belonging, and the pained silence in its wake.
“FOUND” wastes no time drawing listeners into its gravitational pull. Friendship Commanders' songcraft is powerful, with a snarling guitar work that laces grit with melody in equal measure. Jerry Roe holds down the low-end with a gut-rattling pulse, his drums and basslines execute precision blows while still making plenty of room for Audra’s delivery to ring out like a flare in the night. The two have been winning raves for their chemistry, which here is just elemental, almost volcanic. The song doesn’t give up easy solutions. Instead, it embraces the messier truths of disconnection and the silent, stubborn resilience of still looking. It’s a song for anyone who has felt exiled from their own story but believes in the possibility of re-entry.
Co-produced with their longtime collaborator Kurt Ballou, who also recorded the band’s instrumental performances and mixed the album, “FOUND” possesses both immediacy and depth. The soundscape is simultaneously oppressive and liberating. It feels as if you’ve been swallowed by a storm cloud, only to discover a streak of light that’s tearing its way through.
With “FOUND,” Friendship Commanders are reaching out to the oddballs, the wanderers, all of us who are still constructing a picture that makes sense. It’s a reminder that being lost is different from being gone, and sometimes the act of searching is its own form of belonging.