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With their debut full-length, Brooklyn pop quintet Friends have released the best pop album of the summer. After emerging from Bushwick warehouses just over a year ago, the group gained international popularity for two ultra-catchy singles, "I'm His Girl" and "Friend Crush." Both are highlights of Manifest!, plus 10 equally excellent tracks informed by the sounds of New York's underground past: '80s disco, R&B, hip-hop, and punk influences all surface. Each song could stand on its own as a single: the moody melodies and punchy tropical percussion of "Sorry," the funky slowed-down "A Thing like This," the synth beat of "A Light." Manifest! is marked throughout by the lyrics of defiant, relatable front-grrrl, Samantha Urbani, who sings about everything from open relationships to street harassment. The latter is tackled on "Van Fan Gor Du," where Urbani's crew has her back with call-and-response vocals. "Hey, my name is Sam," she yells. "It's not shorty, or sexy, or baby, or mami, you ain't ever gonna understand." "Mind Control" is another stand-out: "I don't need your beauty standard/I can be my own dude," Urbani sings. "I won't pay tuition, I can be my own school/I don't need prescriptions, I can change my own mood." Radical.
