When a friend first described the music of the British band, Foals, to me, he told me it sounded like a cross between Bloc Party and Minus the Bear. Mind you, this was back when both of those bands were really good. Not purveyors of awful Brit-dance-trance or bizarre Yes-ate-Journey prog rock, respectively. So, back when the statement was made, it was very much a compliment and more referring to really awesome Brit Pop peppered with hyper guitar lines rooted in good old fashioned emotive math rock. Foals’ last record, Antidotes, was one of our favorite releases of 2008 (no really, check out this post from December 2008—one our FIRST EVER…and yes, we used to have a feature called ‘Reviewsday’… .) Their sophomore release, seemingly named by a super-psyched vampire, is called Total Life Forever, and has us super-psyched as well. Though not undead. Or being written into romantically dramatic goth roles by Mormons.
Music Monday
May 10, 2010
From what we’ve heard so far, the record seems like it’s retained much of what made Antidotes unique and catchy the first time around, but the overall sound definitely seems to be stepping into satisfyingly more mature territory, both musically and with the overall tone of the instrumentation and voice of the singer, Yannis Philippakis. Or, to quote the frontman himself on the new album, it will sound ‘like the dream of an eagle dying.’ Not sure if that’s a commentary on the collapse of traditional Western ideals, but, regardless, it’s emo as shit. The full-length’s being released tomorrow on Transgressive Records in the UK and later next month state-side by Sub Pop. In the meantime, you can enjoy the spectacular, “This Orient”, as this week’s Song of the Week and, assuming you like what you hear, you can wander on over to the band’s site to stream the whole thing. FOR FREE! Take that dying dreaming eagle of commerce!
