'Antidotes' by Foals
Trotter’s Top Ten position : 2 in 2008
UK Chart high : 3 in 2008
Let's have another band from Oxford then, eh? Foals were hotly tipped at the start of 2008 after a couple of media-teasing singles and an image that tied them in to the dog-end of '80's revivalism. They were 'math-rock' and I didn't know what that was. As it turns out math-rock is sharp, angular guitar and drum sounds forming often repetitive but atypical rhythms. So there. All of which would probably make anyone want to drown them on sight. Get past all the fancy talk and bonkers imagery though and you're rewarded with a fine album that takes a while to 'get' but once 'got' keeps on giving. I've talked before about the 'last gang in town' mentality of the best bands on the planet - like the Strokes, Horrors and Arctic Monkeys - and Foals share this in spades. Just take a look at their live performance below for evidence of that; the band facing inwards totally focussed on their own sound and yet taking the audience with them every step of the way. I've never wanted to pick up a guitar, hold it high on my chest and face stage right more in my life. Bravely, they decided to jetison some of the very songs that had made them a hot ticket in the first place and excluded them from their debut album. At the time I thought that was ill-advised but listening again to them now, realise it wasn't just a brave decision but a correct one. Where they started out was very different to where they were clearly headed on release of 'Antidotes' and it made the record all the more cohesive as a result. So while most of the tunes on display here follow a jittery, beat-driven, barbed template there is plenty of light and shade to add texture and depth too - the sort of music that builds and builds and suddenly you're left wondering how they took you from there to here without noticing the joins. There's also a sense of blissful escapism created by Yannis' lyrics and vocal delivery (and occassional yelping) that adds to the other-worldiness. So yes, they may find themselves in rooms with bits of meat dangling from the ceiling by pieces of string, but it's fun getting there. Above all though, 'Antidotes' ticks all the boxes that a great debut should - bags of fresh ideas, original sounds, energy and impetus, hope and the promise of greater things to come...oh and songs about balloons fueled by love. If any track off the album made me sit up and think there was far more from this band to come than what we've seen so far it was their final single 'Olympic Airways'. By no means a traditional pop single but full of chiming guitars and lush layers of various licks and bleeps that build to a headonistic funky crescendo which is mirrored in the lyrics encouraging us to move away and 'find a place, an aviary for today'. I smile every time I watch the video, though I do feel sorry for the sealife. I've not seen them live yet, and by all accounts that's when they are at their best, but I'm soon to remedy that believe me. Once again though Spotify scores an own goal by not having this album listed, tsk.
Look at Olympic Airways ; Balloons ; Red Socks Pugie (Live on Later...) ; Cassius
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version
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