Total Life Forever // Foals

Foals, the Oxford indie/math rock boys, burst onto the UK music scene in 2008 with their incredible debut Antidotes. Their unique blend of electro, rock and math rock sensibilities crafted a really fresh sound and quickly placed them as my favorite band ever since. I’ve been eagerly awaiting Total Life Forever, so read ahead to see if it was worth the wait, and if it can stand up against Antidotes.

Blue Blood
“Blue Blood” really sets a tone for the rest of the album. Yannis’ echoing vocals and the larger emphasis on funk, in combination, really gives you an idea of what the rest of the album is going to sound like. It’s not aggressively sporadic like a few of the songs off of Antidotes, and this feeling of careful funk is sprinkled throughout the rest of the album.

Miami
Funnily enough, “Miami” actually sounds like the kind of song I would associate with the same city, I don’t know what it is, but I get the feeling. Anyway, “Miami” breaks away from the reserved feeling of “Blue Blood,” but the element of funk is brought forward even more by the heavy bass line running throughout.

Total Life Forever
The album’s title track begins with some really great harmonies from the whole band. Backed by an especially enjoyable bass riff, it’s certainly going to get your head bobbing. This great beat is interrupted though, somewhat disappointingly, by a pretty uninspired chorus that feels out of place within the song itself.

Black Gold
If you thought there wasn’t enough of the harmonic pickings from the original album in the first three tracks of Total Life Forever, “Black Gold” is your fix. Some especially enjoyable muted riffs run through the first minute or so of the song, and it’s when we hit the chorus that Foals break into their first spacey interlude. Horns cry out in this section, and after the second round of the chorus, the song falls into a nice spacey feel accompanied by some nice ambient synth. This comes together for the last two and a half minutes in a lovely, crash and droned vocals doused finish.

Spanish Sahara
Nearing the mid-point of the album, Foals go in a completely different direction to anything you’ve heard from them before. No synth, no bass, only intercutting guitar chords for the first two minutes. It’s really quite good, and it’s nice to see Foals trying to apply their sound in new tones. After the two minute mark, beeps of a keyboard and light taps on a crash come together in a massive wall of sound alongside Yannis’ chorus vocals. Then all of a sudden it’s gone and we’re back to the quiet emptiness of the first two minutes. Again we go through a verse, accompanied though by those familiar beeps and chords, and once again, the wall of sound approaches, but this time it all collides for a beautiful payoff of swirling sound and the whole band breaks into a wondrous jam. Its’ really something to behold, and nothing you’ve heard from Foals before. This by far is one of the best tracks on the album.

This Orient
If there was going to be one radio friendly song on Total Life Forever; it would be “This Orient.” Foals return to a sound much like what you would find on Antidotes, but they keep to true enough to the current sound of Total Life Forever for it to be at home on the album. This is for the better, as “This Orient” has an amazing electronic, harmonic swell about it that makes it seem far more meaningful and soulful than something like “Cassius” or “Red Socks Pugie”. Yannis’ usual wail has been excellently replaced with a more morose drone, and backed up by the boys, it suits the track perfectly, even when contrasted against its largest musical swells of crash and synth.

Fugue
A 49 second interlude after “This Orient.” “Fugue” can’t really be judged as a song… It’s really just some piano chords with blasts of samples that seem to be intended to represent technology itself, with static and beeps abounding.

After Glow
Signaling the inevitable closing of the album, “After Glow” is a little bit uninspired throughout its verses, but after hitting the chorus, Yannis’ lyrics are really nice, and the general tone changes to a nice ambient feeling which is nice to listen to, but its infrequency is quickly remedied by the last three minutes of the song. Some fun little “ooohs” and “heys” penetrate through a great jam the band gets going, and some especially nice guitar plays through this section. Trust me, there’s plenty of funky beats to be had here.

Alabaster
“Alabaster” is probably one of my least liked songs of the album, at least for as long as I’ve been listening to it. I don’t feel as though there’s anything that really defines it from other songs on the album. Apart from some pretty interesting drumming from half-way in, there’s not too much to see here.

2 Trees
“2 Trees” enjoys the same light feel that “Blue Blood” started off the album with. At about one minute and forty seconds in, some really great tremolo picking comes in to make things interesting, and from three and a half minutes, it all falls away into a spacey, ambient keyboard section that, when the drums and tremolo come back, melds quite well together to make for a nice finish.

What Remains
A consistent beat carries throughout “What Remains,” and with a nice wail coming back into Yannis’  vocals it starts off strong, and when tribal drumming and exaggerated bass join the mix accompanied by plenty of ‘whoas’ from the band, it becomes a very aggressive punchy song, and a great way to finish off the album.

Total Life Forever shows a far more mature and changed Foals. Yannis’ lack of wail in his voice in all but one track shows Foals’ ability to write songs that can also support a serious tone. If there’s a word that could describe Total Life Forever it would be ‘serious’. The careful funk and ambient synth that infects your ears while listening really brings you are to the music, and tears you away from the sound Foals established in Antidotes. All I have to say here is that Foals have shown they can truly make some welcome changes to their already amazing sound. Make sure you pick up this album.