Total Life Forever

"Religious regret and infinite debt,/ Heaven's pressure"

I wanted to write about something that was completely foreign to me, so I decided to take a listen to Foals new album "Total Life Forever."  I had never heard of this band, so I was interested to hear what they sound like.  Foals is a British indie/rock band that released their debut album, "Antidotes," in 2008.  "Total Life Forever" overall got a Metacritic score of 79 with high scores from Sputnikmusic (90) and BBC Music (80).

Out of all of the albums I've reviewed so far, I definitely had to listen to this one the most.  I listened to it about three or four times and thought I had a good feel for it.  However, when I looked at the track list, I couldn't imagine what each song sounded like.  I then proceeded to listen to the album about three more times really intently until I could think of what almost every song sounded like and I could pick out at least two songs that I felt explained the bands sound on "Total Life Forever" the most

The first song that really caught my attention was "Total Life Forever" (this link will take you to a pretty good live studio version of the song; you can listen to the album version here)  The reason it attracted my attention was because its significantly more upbeat than the albums first two songs.  It has a very bouncy beat with some funky guitar licks and keyboard lines.  Another reason why it caught my attention was because "Total Life Forever" sounds incredibly similar to Friendly Fires' "Skeleton Boy" (another album I may review at some point).  They sound so similar vocally that I did some research to see if the vocalists were the same.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the musical epiphany that I had thought, although they have played together before.

As you progress through the album, you'll notice that Foals has two different sorts of sounds they like to play with: one that is a bit more upbeat and funky, and another that is much slower and much more ambient.  "Alabaster" is the second song that attracted my attention starting with some simple synthesizing and guitar strumming which leads into some mild, but brief tension, bringing in the bass and vocals, all of which are incredibly light.  Not only do the lyrics present the idea of flying with lines such as "She's up in the sky/ She's up in the domes/ She's up in the sky, up in the dome," but the instrumentals also create a soft melody to compliment it.  About half way through the song, the vocals turn to chanting which lead into a brief industrial sound that becomes ever present throughout the background of the rest of the song as Yannis Philippakis, the band's vocalist, begins to convey a darker message: "She's up in the sky and the sky is one fire/...And with victory the whole world will be ours/ We will build nothing in it/ Nothing in it."

Lyrically, Foals is pretty strong and has fairly good content.  However, some of them seem lazy and redundant audibly with lyrics such as "Come and help me accept it, affect it, protect it/ Come and help me accept it, it's always my home" in the song "Blue Blood;" and "I'm the fury in your head/ I'm the fury in your bed/ I'm the ghost in the back of your head" from "Spanish Sahara."  Lyrics like these really take away from some of their more creative lyrics that are seen in songs such as "Alabaster."  "Blue Blood" in all fairness is one of the better tracks on the album, but because of the aforementioned lyrics, it drops significantly, not only because of the lyrics themselves, but because of the way they're sung, or rather, chanted.  Furthermore, unfortunately, the chant of "accept it, affect it, protect it" happens more than once.

While Foals seems to be successful in having two predominant sounds in their album (upbeat and ambient) they still seem to struggle with how to use both of these sounds effectively.  While "Spanish Sahara" turns out to be a pretty great song, it begins so quietly that not until almost forty-five seconds in did I realize I was listening to a new song as opposed to my iPod freezing; to me that's a little too ambient.  Their more uptempo songs, however, overall, are much stronger, "Black Gold" and "Miami" among them.  Overall, Foals manages to create something that is unique and possesses and interesting quality.  They are, however, a band that can easily become background noise; you really have to listen to the album intently in order to gain an appreciation for their music.

"Total Life Forever": 82/100

Take a listen to the full album here.