Friends (Francis and the Lights song)

"Friends"
Single by Francis and the Lights featuring Bon Iver and Kanye West
from the album Farewell, Starlite!
ReleasedJuly 7, 2016
Length3:09
LabelKTTF Music
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Francis and the Lights singles chronology
"Wonderful Everyday: Arthur"
(2014) 		"Friends"
(2016) 		"Summer Friends"
(2016)
Bon Iver singles chronology
"Beth/Rest"
(2012) 		"Friends"
(2016) 		"22 (OVER S∞∞N)" / "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄"
(2016)
Kanye West singles chronology
"Champions"
(2016) 		"Friends"
(2016) 		"Fade"
(2016)

"Friends" is a song by American music project Francis and the Lights featuring Bon Iver and uncredited contributions from Kanye West. The song was released as a single on July 7, 2016, accompanied by a music video featuring Francis Farewell Starlite, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Kanye West.[1]

The song was sampled in Chance the Rapper's song "Summer Friends" from his 2016 mixtape Coloring Book.[2] "Friends" was sampled in "Summer Friends" before it was officially released independently as a single by Francis and the Lights.

Red Bull named it as the 15th best song of 2016.[3]

Francis and the Lights, Vernon and West collaborated again in 2019 on the song "Take Me to the Light."[4]

Music video

A music video for "Friends" was released on July 7, 2016.[5] The video was directed by Jake Schreier.[6] Knowing each other since childhood, Francis and Schreier have been making single-take, minimalist performance videos since 2008.[6] They wanted to do the next iteration of what they had been doing before.[6] In a 2016 interview, Schreier said, "We had never done a synchronized dance in a video or really had other protagonists in the video, so that's what we wanted to add to this one."[6]

Pitchfork named it as the 18th best music video of 2016.[7] NPR named it as one of the best music videos of 2016.[8]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Friends"3:09

Charts

Chart Peak
position
UK Singles Downloads (OCC)[9] 90
US Spotify Velocity (Billboard)[10] 13
US Spotify Viral 50 (Billboard)[11] 1

References

  1. ^ Strauss, Matthew (2016-07-07). "Watch Kanye, Bon Iver, and Francis and the Lights Team Up for New Video "Friends"". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  2. ^ Legaspi, Althea (2016-07-07). "Watch Kanye West, Bon Iver in Francis and the Lights' New 'Friends' Video". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  3. ^ "50 Best Songs of 2016". Red Bull. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  4. ^ Rettig, James (September 3, 2019). "Francis And The Lights – "Take Me To The Light" (Feat. Bon Iver & Kanye West)". Stereogum. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
  5. ^ Breihan, Tom (2016-07-07). "Francis And The Lights – "Friends" (Feat. Bon Iver And Kanye West) Video". Stereogum. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  6. ^ a b c d Hogan, Marc (2016-07-08). "Francis and the Lights' "Friends" Video Director Talks Kanye, Bon Iver, Dance Moves". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  7. ^ "The Best Music Videos of 2016 (1/3)". Pitchfork. 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  8. ^ "Best Music Videos of 2016". NPR. 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  9. ^ "Official Singles Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  10. ^ "Francis & the Lights - Chart history - Spotify Velocity". Billboard. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  11. ^ "Francis & the Lights - Chart history - Spotify Viral 50". Billboard. Retrieved 2017-07-04.