anamoe drive – thank god it’s friday (2025)
thank god it’s friday is the latest album from Irish indie-folk artist Oisín Leahy Furlong, aka anamoe drive. It’s built on the artist’s desire to make short songs that leave just enough impression on you before changing to the next. The recording of the album is very lo-fi. You can hear the hiss, especially between the songs. This is anamoe drive’s second full-length release, following on from last year’s breakfast in bed. The Irish Times have labelled his work as “…delicate deviation suffused with obvious warmth”
The album begins with ‘fat chance’, which has lyrics that describe a love that was too brief and lost. “Made my first friend in the slow lane of my life / Making out at night / Even talking felt alright”. There is a lush acoustic guitar and nice use of reverb towards the end. anamoe drive promptly turns things on its head and goes down a grunge avenue on ‘the rip’, which sounds like a soft version of Nirvana. He even references one of their own tracks, ‘Come As You Are’, in the lyrics. The lyrics are clever, with lots of use of metaphor.
‘the irish wolfhound’ is an uplifting track with lovely backing vocals and harmonies. anamoe drive displays strong acoustic guitar playing throughout the album, which is particularly evident on ‘hurry up & wait’. I’d describe it as a moody song but with nice chord changes. ‘terrible song’ is very melancholy but with a dab of positivity, which, in turn, makes it very listenable. It possesses more intelligent songwriting in the form of: “It’s my birthday I tell you / To a group of strangers who couldn’t care less about this one / It’s been a terrible week / This is a terrible song it’s true / I wrote it for you“
There is a track where its bassline sounds similar to ‘That’s Entertainment’ by The Jam, which is ‘walking the cow’- it has nice scratchy guitars. The lyrics on ‘idle mind’ describe misery and woe, although the instrumentation is quite breezy and upbeat: “Maxed out my credits with the man upstairs / The minuscule monster conducts my despair / I don’t wanna turn up looking like I do / To a room full of people who aren’t you”. This kind of versatility makes anamoe drive an intriguing artist.
One track that is quite Beatles-esque, and that is ‘old habits’. It could be a distant relative of ‘Rocky Raccoon’ from The White Album. ‘old habits’ feels quite reflective with lyrics about mortality: “So how long do I have / Come on doc spit it out / Before they put me in the ground / Let me get high on the sound'” The album concludes with the title track, which is a sombre instrumental piece with heavy keys.
anamoe drive expands on the creative process behind this album: “It felt liberating to give voice to these moments, as many of these songs have been floating around my head for years. Others were written only weeks before we hit record. thank god it’s friday gives all of these small songs a final resting place.“
thank god it’s friday is a short album with plenty of charm and enough ideas to keep the listener intrigued.
Find out more about anamoe drive on his Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was sent to us by Jawdropper Music.
