RHODES
RHODES' beautiful new album Friends Like These is a distillation of everything he has been through, good and bad, during a transformative period of his life. Though he and producer Rich Cooper (Josef Salvat, Lucy Rose) recorded its 10 songs during lockdown, they were chosen from around 100 that RHODES wrote as he processed major personal and professional changes in the years that came before. Some, like becoming a father, were completely joyful. ‘Others, like deciding to leave his record label and trying to navigate his way out of toxic working relationships, provoked a complex array of competing emotions.
Hertfordshire-raised, London-based RHODES says he picked the songs that "best represented my journey over the past few years" and tried not to overthink what his second album "should" be. The title is derived from the old saying "with friends like, who needs enemies?", but flips it into something positive. "My close friends are all over this record and if it wasn't for them it wouldn't exist," RHODES says. "It took me a moment to get here, but in such a chaotic and noisy world, I've always found that true beauty and clarity comes in the pauses."
