Fresh from their 4-year semi-hiatus, Foals have finally resurfaced with the exciting, albeit surprising, announcement that they plan on releasing their next two albums consecutively this year. Whilst we eagerly anticipate Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1, I thought that I’d revisit their back catalogue and try to rank their previous four studio releases.

Following their math rock inspired debut, Antidotes, they have matured both lyrically and sonically with their subsequent releases, continually managing to artfully blend guitar-driven indie rock and affecting ballads into cohesive listening experiences.

As a big fan of the Oxford-based quartet, deciding on the order of this list was how I’d imagine it feels to be a parent and having to choose your favourite child. However, I have persevered in the face of this adversity and finally got to what I believe is the definitive ranking.

 

4. Holy Fire (2013)
Choosing to open with a four-minute instrumental is a bold choice, especially in a time when attention spans are at an all-time low, but the slow-building ‘Prelude’ on Foals’ 2015 release Holy Fire is such a complex tapestry of sounds that you can easily forgive the lack of words. Then, just as it starts to wind down, the album launches into what was arguably their heaviest release at that point, ‘Inhaler’. The band’s frontman, Yannis Philippakis, reaches a point vocally as he bellows the chorus that he hadn’t been to since their early single ‘Mathletics’, followed by a powerful guitar riff that’s sure to remain stuck in any listener’s head for hours.

The album then, somewhat jarringly, transitions into the record’s breakout hit – ‘My Number’. It’s an undeniably catchy and inventive pop-esque song that combines Philippakis’ moody vocals with an energetic synthesizer-driven beat to excellent effect. However, from this point on, the album starts to take a downturn in form and the songs become progressively forgettable as the track list rolls on. Despite some other flashes of quality from songs like ‘Providence’, where Philippakis’ refrain ‘I know just what to do / I’m an animal just like you’ is almost screamed by the end of the song, which makes for a very raw and intense moment, it is difficult to shake the feeling that some of the songs could be more conceptually engaging.

The only other stand-out track is the closer, ‘Moon’, where emotive lyrics combined with stripped back instrumentation heavily contrast the album’s opening, and provides a fitting ending. Ultimately, Holy Fire is by no means bad, and contains good, if not spectacular, songs that are book ended by Foals’ showing off their genre-defying brilliance though, in the process, creating a fundamentally unbalanced album.

3. What Went Down (2015)
The band’s follow up to Holy Fire, What Went Down, suffers from similar shortcomings, and, again, has an inconsistency where you get the feeling that more time could have been spent making songs that were less forgettable. With that said, where it excels is by having some of the finest standalone cuts in their discography.

The rock influences that started to imbue their music on Holy Fire are revisited to much success, and create two of the more noteworthy tracks – the opener and indeed titular, ‘What Went Down’, where Philippakis’ frenzied and confrontational atmospherics create a visceral sense of foreboding in the listener, and ‘Snake Oil’, the albums mid-point, which intrigues with its cryptic lyricism and energetic vocal performance.

However, despite these hints at a new direction for the band, they once again revert to type too often, and take their cues from their earlier work. For example, ‘Birch Tree’, with its blend of tricky lead guitar riffs and thumping drum beat, could have easily appeared on Total Life Forever. Unlike Holy Fire, though, these songs are much less forgettable, and do stand up to comparison with their first two albums.

Despite this criticism, for some brief moments there are flashes of innovation that grab the attention, most notably on ‘Night Swimmers’ where Philippakis’ more overt lyrical style and punchy lead guitar takes the song in a different direction, creating arguably the first Foals’ song you could dance to since anything off Antidotes. The potential of this song to become a hit in the electro- pop genre was quickly spotted by then up-and-coming producer Mura Masa, who remixed the track which was later released by the band as a follow-up single.

Overall, in spite of it being more consistent than Holy Fire in terms of individual songs, there is still an overriding sense of a lack of invention as a whole. As such, it doesn’t compare to their first two releases which are better as collective bodies of work.

2) Antidotes (2008)
With its intricate guitars and frenetic drumming, this album is the soundtrack to youthful exuberance. Running at just under fifty-five minutes, this is actually Foals’ longest album but, instead of the uninspiring middle portions of their previously mentioned releases,  Antidotes keeps their sound fresh, leaving the listener gripped until the very last second.

The opener, ‘The French Open’, begins with droning brass notes, creating a wall of sound that is quickly broken through by Philippakis’ and drummer, Jack Bevan, combining to create a catchy beat that is impossible not to nod your head along to. This ear-worm-like quality is a thread that continues throughout the album, and is primarily what makes it so memorable.

Speaking of Bevan, it is hard to recall a drummer in noughties indie rock, aside from possibly the Arctic Monkey’s Matt Helders on Favourite Worst Nightmare, that has had such a pivotal role in an album. Such is his performance that you could probably remove the rest of the instrumentation and still be left with a captivating record.

On this album, Foals are the master of creating tension in their music, the best example of this being ‘Two Steps, Twice’, where the guitars slowly build in intensity for a minute and a half which, when combined with the crashing drums, creates an atmosphere so taut that the rush of it being broken is absolutely exhilarating. This is evidenced in their 2016 performance at Reading festival where Philippakis used it to whip the crowd into a veritable state of pandemonium, and just goes to show his skills as a showman.

Sonically this is, without a doubt, their finest work, however lyrically it’s a mixed bag of the cryptic and the downright meaningless. Take, for example, ‘Tron’, where they mix up their usual formula by taking the complex little guitar riffs and adding a bed of electronic sounds, making a creative detour from the path trodden by the rest of the album. However, despite all this promise, lyrics such as ‘Away, away, in this system there is / A flower shock by which I mean to say’ are so nonsensical that they detract from the song rather than elevate it.

1) Total Life Forever (2010)
In many ways, the release of Total Life Forever represented a coming-of-age for the band. The feverish nature of their debut was toned down to a more polished sound, but crucially without losing any of its charm. This progression into a more mature sound was a risk, since they were following up on a release that gained a cult following in indie music circles, though they deftly made this transition with much aplomb.

Where they really come into their own on this album is their ability to subvert the expectations that listeners have for longer songs. Out of the eleven tracks on the album, five have run-times of over five-minutes, though, instead of turning these into monotonous slogs, they are able to utilise every second to craft compelling compositions that reel the listener further in.

Most notably in this regard is ‘Spanish Sahara’, where, in just under seven-minutes, they effortlessly float from heartfelt ballad to indie rock anthem, with Philippakis’ emotive vocals being a comforting tether to a song that is seemingly always in a state of flux. The underlying bleakness of the lyrics perfectly compliment the atmosphere generated by the song, and takes it to the next level. It truly is a stand out track and a highlight of their entire discography.

Their new-found maturity on this LP also extends to their lyrics. Thankfully, they abandoned the ambiguous style of Antidotes and replaced it with a more conventional approach to songwriting, allowing them to create coherent lines which provide the logical structure and narrative to the songs that were so painfully lacking before. With this extra-dimension to the album, you can finally step back and see the picture they are creating clearly, making this a worthy choice for their finest record.