Second album from Oxford band who are usually pigeonholed as 'math-rock', but who pack bounce and melody into their music. This is an altogether more languid affair than their debut, though.
Foals are a band that move in mysterious, sometimes baffling ways. Take their debut album 'Antidotes', for example. It was a big success for the Oxford quintet, and rightly so; stuffed with tightly-sprung, upbeat tunes, it installed them in the hearts of fans of quirky alt-rock. What was confusing, however, was that they a) chose to leave off their first three singles, and arguably three of their best songs ('Hummer', 'Mathletics' and 'Balloons') and b) binned the original Dave Sitek mix of that album.
Perfectionists? Perhaps. Their second album suggests that they've relaxed somewhat, however, both in technique and in style. Described (hopefully) facetiously by the band as "like the dream of an eagle dying", 'Total Life Forever' differs from their debut largely because its tempo. This is not a record to whoomp you around the head and get you dancing - rather it's one to slowly settle into.
That doesn't mean that Foals haven't lost the spring in their step, either - far from it. Both 'The Orient' and the sprightly title track quicken the pulse, but it's 'Black Gold' and 'Spanish Sahara' that best epitomise this album; they're the sort of tunes that slowly seep into your internal playlist, the latter especially drawn-out and blissfully dreamy before kicking off with a tumbling clatter. Opener 'Blue Blood' sees frontman Yannis Phillipakkis offer a powerful vocal opening, too, joined only by the ping of a guitar string, before opening up the song into a gently funky groove that's pieced together layer by airy layer.
True, 'Total Life Forever' seems to lose steam as it trails off with '2 Trees' and the wilful plod of 'What Remains' - perhaps the quintet stick too rigidly to the 'lullaby' blueprint for their own good. As a second album, though, it's an impressive effort and crucially distinct from its predecessor.
