"All of your life you've been played by both sides / The sharpest knife is that truth / Did it cut you deep? Was your life a deceit? / Have you been but a leaf in the wind? / Which way's it blowing?"
The indie rock third act reveal / power pop slap in the face of "Play Both Sides", by Brighton UK born Fragile Creatures, feels lovingly quilted together from formidable iconic cross generational seeds blossoming now, when it should. To my ears, I feel that kind of grand pure late 70's pop tone with the proggy 80's fusion rock / post punk filtered through 90's art rock and distilled through 2000's retro garden rock attire. I am thinking of artists like Todd Rundgren, Big Star, Television, Pavement, The Kooks or thereabouts. Now, this is me just free associating about this one track, the title track of Fragile Creatures' (great band name, by the way) third full length album. Sometimes I get this kind of "off the top of my head" writing wrong, sometimes oddly right. In any event, I love this kind of blend, it speaks to me in terms of any artist who seems to be steeping in the history of rock and all the discernable iterations of rock from like the 60's on and blending with emotional strokes.
"Play Both Sides" seems historically accurate and so very relatable, maybe especially in America where we are constantly getting played, being grifted, by our politicians and their gaslighting Billionaire class of limp dicked autocrats. Every year that I age, it is quite apparent that someone in a suit is f*cking us all royally and not even wining and dining us first.
Cool sound, cool track. I hope that Adam Kidd and the boys tell me if I got something a little bit right.
LINER NOTES (very readable indeed)
Fragile Creatures formed in Brighton in 2012. After 7 long years of art school Adam Kidd landed a publishing and recording contract and they were off. Adam had always been in bands and often they featured Tom Alty and Aaron Neville. A shared love of making noise transcended the usual limitations of genre. They recruited James Crump to play the drums then Adam Whittles to play bass guitar. Soon they were having a wild time recording in nice studios and playing in scuzzy bars, but this ultimately led to development hell and a much delayed first album that the band felt was under-supported by the label. In 2019, they broke free with their first fully independent release: Heart Beat EP. A collection they commemorated earlier in 2025 with a series of live session videos. The pandemic years saw Fragile Creatures release their critically acclaimed sophomore record, Punk Yacht, embracing their penchant for contrast and eclecticism. Fast forward to 2025 and you'll find the best songs of their career so far gathered together on their third album, Play Both Sides. It plays like a greatest hits, with almost every song being a single contender.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/fragilecreatures
https://www.youtube.com/fragilecreatures
https://fragilecreatures.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fragilecreatures/
https://www.facebook.com/fragilecreatures/
https://x.com/FragileCreature
https://fragilecreatures.co.uk/
Fragile Creatures formed in Brighton in 2012. After 7 long years of art school Adam Kidd landed a publishing and recording contract and they were off. Adam had always been in bands and often they featured Tom Alty and Aaron Neville. A shared love of making noise transcended the usual limitations of genre. They recruited James Crump to play the drums then Adam Whittles to play bass guitar. Soon they were having a wild time recording in nice studios and playing in scuzzy bars, but this ultimately led to development hell and a much delayed first album that the band felt was under-supported by the label. In 2019, they broke free with their first fully independent release: Heart Beat EP. A collection they commemorated earlier in 2025 with a series of live session videos. The pandemic years saw Fragile Creatures release their critically acclaimed sophomore record, Punk Yacht, embracing their penchant for contrast and eclecticism. Fast forward to 2025 and you'll find the best songs of their career so far gathered together on their third album, Play Both Sides. It plays like a greatest hits, with almost every song being a single contender.
Fragile Creatures, indie rock, power pop, cross generational genre blend, alt pop, garden rock, post rock, alt rock, songwriter Adam Kidd, third album "Play Both Sides", diy aesthetic, art rock,
Love this, man. You've totally got where I'm coming from lyrically. I love a bit of Pavement and Big Star too. Thanks for the feature! Adam Kidd x
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