Almost Free LP (Color)

FIDLAR's highly anticipated third album, Almost Free, follows a steady stream of singles over the last spring and summer, including “Alcohol,” “Can’t You See,” “Are You High,” and “Too Real,”

The album was produced by Ricky Reed (Grammy nominated producer for Twenty One Pilots,Phantogram, Leon Bridges), mixed by Manny Marroquin (Rihanna, Imagine Dragons, Bruno Mars,Sia, Kanye West) and mastered by Chris Gehringer (Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Twenty One Pilots, J. Balvin).

Almost Free touches on many of the tragedies and irritations of modern life: existential dread, gentrification, the inescapable sway of the super-rich and the self-involved, post-breakup telecommunication, performative wokeness, the loneliness of sobriety or the lack thereof. But through sheer force of imagination and an unchecked joie de vivre, the L.A.-based band manages to turn feeling wrong into something glorious and essential. In the age of joyless self-care, Almost Free makes a brilliant case for being less careful, for living without fear of fucking up, and possibly embracing any incurred damage as a lucky symptom of being alive.

The album sees the band pushing boundaries into new territory and influences while staying true to their unshakable core. “A lot of the vibe was, ‘Well, why can’t we do that? Why can’t we have horns? Why can’t we have key changes? Why can’t we have a harmonica loop?’,” said lead singer/guitarist Zac Carper. “It was about taking the ceiling off. Having it be limitless. Ain’t no rules.” Elvis added “Almost Free feels like a step forward for us in a lot of ways. We tried to be true to ourselves and let the music come out naturally, without fear of how people would receive it.”

Throughout Almost Free, FIDLAR match their stronger sense of purpose with the ineffable magic that’s always driven them—most notably, that pure and palpable love of playing together. “We were so young when this started, we were just partying and being kids, and FIDLAR took on a life of its own,” says Zac. “I really thought I was going to be working on other people’s music for the rest of my life, and that would be it. In my wildest imagination I never would’ve thought that this all would’ve worked out the way it did—but that’s how life happens in general. That’s the classic story.”