Foals

One Liner: Great rock with enough funk to make it danceable.

Poster Position: 5

Thoughts:  I am a fan of this band.  Their 2015 album, What Went Down, is a great group of rock songs.  When I reviewed it, I had a good riff on "math rock" that I won't repeat here, but just know that my promotion of Fiction Rock is really moving along at a great pace.  

Their most listened to track is a little poppier, more buoyant and dance-y, "My Number," which comes from their 2013 album Holy Fire and clocks in at 57 million streams.

Funky shit right there.  Like a 70's disco funk barn burner.  Although, uh, sitting on the bathroom floor at a club is a bad plan if you ever want to use those pants again.  Well, maybe the ladies loo is a little less puddly than the mens' room?  Anyway, this track showcases the best thing about their music, the funk influence that makes this way more fun than just any old rock and roll thing.  That 2013 album, Holy Fire, is also a good one, with "Inhaler" a crunchy hard rocker to go along with "My Number."  Good song for sure.

When I reviewed the new album, I chose "Birch Tree" as my jam, and it is still a kick ass funk stroller track, but I figure I should bring something new to the table.  So here is their second most listened to track these days, with 31.4 million streams, and a bunch of radio play right now, "Mountain at my Gates" from the What Went Down album.

That video is kind of cool - you can move around in it and change your perspective.  Wonder if you can watch with the google cardboard thing and do the same?  I'll go home and report back.

Their Spotify bio shows that the band is from Oxford, England, and the band name "is a play on the etymology of [guitarist Yannis] Philippakis' name."  Well, apparently the greek name Philippos means "lover of horses," so there you have it (I guess.  Kind of a weak reason to name the band after baby horses).    

Then, there is a 2012 album called Tapes, which has a guest person on each track, isn't listed in their Spotify bio, and sounds nothing like the rest of their music.  I'm still not sure what I'm listening to, but I think you can safely assume that this is not a part of their real album list.  Ah, here we are, it is apparently Foals' "eclectic installment in the German label !K7's Tapes series."  Whatever that means, (and oh my God, Pitchfork is so annoying! Listen to this: "the Gatto Fritto remix of JR Seaton's "Way Savvy", a dizzying, silken scramble that grips the tails of bottle rockets and hangs on for dear life"  AGGHHH!!), this is not a good Foals album, but some sort of electro mixtape of remixes of some synths played and then remixed again by a robot.  i.e., this is crap and you don't need to go listen to it.

As for their two early albums, 2010's Total Life Together and 2008's Antidotes, they are fine, but I don't think they have the same propulsive funk and joy of the two new albums. Antidotes starts off with an almost reggae/ska vibe, and goes uptempo for most of the album.  So, I'd still suggest that you enjoy the two new ones if you are limiting your time with this band.  That being said, I don't think you should limit your time with this band.  I think you should embrace them and jam their music and make plans to go see them in the fall.