Foals – “Total Life Forever”

Indie, Dance Punk, Post-Punk; whatever you want to call it, it’s what Franz Ferdinand started and Bloc Party briefly perfected. It’s a genre where the most feared term is ‘sophomore album’ – blame the hype – and it’s rare that bands manage to impress with their second record. With that in mind, Foals deserve to be a noted exception.

Vocalist Yannis Philippakis provides the emotion, the rhythm section provides the energy, and the guitars bring Foals’ usual math-rock/indie-rock charm. It’s a mixture that they’ve undeniably perfected, and although Total Life Forever doesn’t have many real surprises, it stands as a celebration of the band’s talents. Frankly, they celebrate the hell out of their talents, but it’s so damn perfect that we can’t complain.

“Spanish Sahara” and “This Orient” stand out as the best tracks, sitting beside one another as the perfect centerpiece to Total Life Forever. The intro and closing tracks also deserve credit as strong position pieces – drawing you in with catchy guitars and sending you away with a haunting finale – and the heavy breakdown in “Afterglow” is one of the album’s most interesting moments.

Total Life Forever is the closest thing to a Dance-Punk swansong that we’re likely to see, and it’s a nice goodbye for the dying genre. Even if they pull off another album – or Bloc Party manages to make a halfway decent record again – it’s inevitable that indie bands will continue to progress (“2 Trees” is a good indication that Foals are well on their way). So goodbye to the pointed guitars, goodbye to the dance-floor drumming, and so long to the smart bass lines; we’ll miss you. Thanks for all the hipsters.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. Blue Blood
02. Miami
03. Total Life Forever
04. Black Gold
05. Spanish Sahara
06. This Orient
07. Fugue
08. After Glow
09. Alabaster
10. 2 Trees
11. What Remains

Run Time: 50:26
Release Date: 05.10.2010