Search - Foals :: Total Life Forever

Total waste of money

A. Halfstar | Baltimore MD | 06/29/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Everything that made Antidotes so exciting, so original, and just so nearly perfect is gone. No more beautiful interplay between guitars and keyboards, no more driving and intricate beats, no longer a whole much greater than the sum of its parts. Now it's just a big smear that sounds like any other junk indie band. Did I mention the bad singing and silly lyrics? A huge step backward for what was one of my favorite bands."

What?

Sanuvia | Chesterfield, VA | 08/11/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Why on earth do bands do this? They suck us in with a first album that redefines their genre, gain the respect and adulation of those who recognize brilliant creativity in it's purest form, wait two or five years to release a new album, and then end up copying all the other drivel out there stating "I can now put more of myself and my emotion into my music" I keep going back to Antidotes on my maxed-out Ipod, forgetting all the other music, even now after hearing it so many times. There is a reason for that. The incredible artistry of all the voices in the music working together flawlessly excites and inspires me so much more than anything I've heard in years. I was ready to crown them my favorite band and now I listen to these samples and I want to puke. I grew up on R.E.M. in the 80's, and they broke my heart album after album, from the 90's on, until I just gave up. How do you go from Gardening at Night to Shiny Happy People? But I only gave up on them because they gave up on themselves and the sound that their fans grew to love. C'mon Foals, at least put out a few albums of amazing music like Antidotes before breaking our hearts with stuff like this. We are all looking for that fantastic sound from some unappreciated new band that blows our minds. This does nothing of the sort. And don't even get me started on the album cover....Nirvana, Catherine Wheel....even that is far from original. I havent decided if I should spend my hard-earned cash on this yet, as I can't afford to go buying albums from my favorite bands expecting the same from them anymore. -Broken Hearted"

Wonderful head trip!

Nse Ette | Lagos, Nigeria | 06/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Blue blood" opens Foals new CD and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were listening to Vampire Weekend. The song is groovy Bass- heavy Rock with trilling soukous guitar. Produced this time around by Luke Smith (formerly from Alt Rock band Clor, their debut was produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek), where "Antidotes" was a more electronic Dance/Rock affair, "Total life forever" is groovier with a loose feel.



"Miami' finds lead singer Yannis Philippakis sounding all Robert Smith-like on a catchy midtempo groove. The Dancey title track with chanted vocals sounds like Foals of yore. The stomping "Black gold" features choppy riffs and haunting harmonies with a euphoric climax. "The future is not what it used to be" sings Philippakis in a new found croon.



It's tough to pick a standout really, the almost 7 minute-long epic ballad "Spanish sahara" (with a slow building intro, increasing in tension before exploding into life towards the end), the frantic "This Orient" (with dizzying guitars), the piano interlude "Fugue", "After glow" (starts off as a ballad, leading to stomping Disco-tinged climax), the falsetto sung "Alabaster" (which starts off elegiac, building to a ballad with crunching/fuzzy beats), "2 trees" (with a floaty feel), and closing atmospheric ballad "What remains", everything thrills.



As good as their debut was, this is even more ambitious and wide screen. A wonderful head trip!"