“Cross my heart, hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye. Wait a moment, spoke a lie. I never really wanted to die. But if I may, and if I might, my heart is open for tonight. But my lips are sealed and promise is true, I won’t break my word to you,” are the entrancing first few lines of Freedom Fry’s latest album, Best Friend—which was recently celebrated during an intimately dim-lit performance at Black Rabbit Rose in Hollywood.

Steering far away from the band’s usual soft-folk discography, the instrumentation of Best Friend is rooted in echoes of eerie synth-pop—signifying a presence reborn for Marie Seyrat and Bruce Driscoll, the French-American, husband-and-wife duo behind the band. This one is much darker, moody, provocative.

“No Matter Where We Are,” the album’s fifth track, is where the mixtape begins to take a turn: “It will be better than before, we’ll be shining…” Seyrat sings in an almost state of mesmerism. “Nothing will ever get me down, never dying. We’ll leave it up for ever more, we’ll be diamonds. Forget walking on the ground, we’ll be flying, flying…no matter where we are.” The tune is uplifting, almost reminiscent of the duo’s earlier tunes, although the sentiment doesn’t last for long.   

Presented alongside a series of nearly haunting visuals, the anthology expresses the complete arch of a relationship—exploring themes of enamored love, heartbreak, toxicity, denial, confession, goodbyes, and everything in between. By the time the final track, “Farewell,” comes along, Freedom Fry has summed up this relationship in four simple words: “one grand, sweet song.” Because, I guess as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, right?

Best Friend is available now on all music platforms.