''Pala'' is the second album from British

alternative dance Alternative dance (also known as indie dance or underground dance in the U.S.) is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained American and worldwide expos ...

band

Friendly Fires Friendly Fires are an English indie rock band from St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. They are currently signed to XL Recordings. Their self-titled debut album was released on 1 September 2008, and was announced as one of the shortlisted twelv ...

. It was released in the UK on 16 May 2011, and charted at number 6 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. The album name comes from

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

's final novel ''

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

'', which tells the story of a journalist shipwrecked on the fictional island of Pala, which supports a utopian society. The

scarlet macaw The scarlet macaw (''Ara macao'') is a large red, yellow, and blue Central and South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. It is native to humid evergreen forests of the Neotropics. Its range extends from ...

photograph was chosen from the private collection of Norwegian fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø.

Singles

* "Live Those Days Tonight" is the first single taken from the album. The track received its first play on

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

's show on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

on 22 March 2011. The band performed the song on ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon. About pag ...

'', and it was released to the US iTunes Store the next day. In the UK, it was released on 16 May 2011, the same day as the album, and charted at number 80 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. * "Hawaiian Air" was the second single taken from the album. The music video was shot in southern Spain in May 2011. It reached No. 92 in the UK, and appeared on the soundtrack of the 2012

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

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'' alongside "Hurting". * "Blue Cassette" was released as the third single on 2 December 2011, along with the Tiga Remix of the single. * "Hurting" was announced as the next single by Nick Grimshaw on

on 3 August 2011 with the release date confirmed as 10 October 2011. Remixes of the single were released on 27 February 2012. It appeared on the soundtrack of 2012 racing video game ''Forza Horizon'' alongside "Hawaiian Air".

Track listing

Taken from the album booklet: (*) additional production ;Notes *"Live Those Days Tonight" contains a sample of "Albondigas" by Badonday (Toby Tobias and Dave Garnish). *"Hurting" contains a sample of "Lissoms" by

Toro y Moi Chaz Bear (born Chazwick Bradley Bundick; November 7, 1986), known professionally as Toro y Moi, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He is often recognized as a spearhead of the chillwave genre in the 2010s, ...

Critical reception

The album received a score of 73 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

(based on 22 reviews), indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Chart positions

''Pala'' debuted on the

at number 6 on 22 May 2011, that week's second highest debut after

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

's ''

Director's Cut A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...

''. It also debuted at number 2 on the albums download chart, and number 3 on the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

As of January 2012 UK sales stand at 90,000 copies according to The Guardian.

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Albums produced by Paul Epworth Friendly Fires albums XL Recordings albums