IN REVIEW: Foals - "Life Is Yours"

 

For over fifteen years, Foals have straddled the line between their critically acclaimed indie rock beginnings and their world-sized mainstream ambitions; so as to say, as much as they have relished any and all opportunities to challenge themselves and push their sound into new directions, there's always been that deeply ingrained penchant for massive hooks. Because of this duality, Foals have often found themselves in the rather rare position of experiencing minor commercial breakthroughs while simultaneously experimenting with different styles and techniques. Juggling these two disparate ambitions isn't easy, but to this point they've managed to have it both ways with minimal backlash.

When they first garnered mainstream attention, it was with the disco-tinged single My Number in 2013; that song was an obvious outlier on Holy Fire, an album that was far darker and more nocturnal than the bright grooves of My Number would lead you to believe. Follow-up record What Went Down, released a couple of years later, pulled a similar trick; while the album traded in overall heavier material than its predecessor, Mountain At My Gates stood alone in its accessibility, and Foals were rewarded with the coveted American attention that every UK artist seems to crave. Then, when their fifth album (2019's Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost) saw them emptying the cupboards and offering a wildly varied and admirably executed two-part album, there were (naturally) two danceable singles to keep the mainstream attention going while they stretched out their sound elsewhere; In Degrees and The Runner felt practically like sequels to My Number and Mountain At My Gates respectively.

Then, as the world plunged into pandemic lockdown hell, Foals found themselves creating music remotely while longing for the colourful festival crowds they'd suddenly lost the privilege to play for. The resulting seventh album, Life Is Yours, takes those not-so-subtle forays into dance-rock and makes them the rule rather than the exception. That's not to say the record is devoid of experimentation or rock music (Flutter, for instance, features an elastic lead and beefy wordless chorus that reminds listeners of their unshakable experimental streak); rather, Life Is Yours finds Foals unafraid to push themselves into pop and unashamed at the results. The album is front-loaded with the singles to drive the point home; Wake Me Up, 2am and 2001 don't rival those past successes overall, but their presence in sequence on the same record feels oddly refreshing, as you don't have to skip around their records or create a playlist of singles to get to the sunny stuff. I do have a beef with 2001, however; inexplicably, the song's last 36 seconds are lopped off and designated interlude status as (summer sky). It doesn't segué into anything, and it's absolutely asinine to treat it as a separate track.

The back half is home to some of the album's farther reaching material, but there aren't nearly as many detours and/or deviations as fans might be expecting from a Foals record. Looking High packs a mighty groove into a rather simplistic structure, while Under the Radar imagines a world where Foals formed twenty years earlier and listened to a lot of new wave. Crest of the Wave fits well thematically but throws in a little off-kilter percussion to keep things interesting, although this ends up being perhaps the most interesting thing about this otherwise drab and meandering song. That's followed by the EDM-indebted beat of The Sound, which honestly becomes kind of grating by the halfway point as the guitar line tries and fails to wrestle attention away from it; and then there's the closing track Wild Green, which aims to be a hypnotic dénouement and winds up being rather unenjoyable as Yannis Philippakis' vocals become nigh unintelligible under waves of reverb.

So what ends up happening with Life Is Yours, through no fault of the band, is the classic case of front-loading; by pushing the more accessible and pleasant material to the top of the track list, what follows those singles becomes kind of tedious, less engaging and a lot more patience-testing, and not in the way they've been in the past. Whereas previous records kept listeners on their toes with wild shifts in genre and tone, Life Is Yours picks its spot and more or less stays there, occasionally throwing a stray inspiration into the mix but by and large being content to simply be known forevermore as Foals' dance-pop record. It's the first time they've presented an album with this narrow a scope, and I found my mind wandering or, worse, hoping for just a taste of the genre-hopping they've built their reputation on. I appreciate the effort considering the circumstances of its creation, and there are elements of this album that are quite exciting; if you've enjoyed Foals' pop-leaning singles in the past, you'll find plenty more to dig into here. Personally, I've never been offended at their occasional nods to the dance floor, but I found an entire album of it to be a little much. 

Considering just three years ago they released a thrilling culmination of both their most exploratory and mainstream impulses, it felt like the palettes were being cleansed, and that they could go anywhere from there. I'm not disappointed at the direction they chose, nor am I upset that they attempted to focus their efforts into a more cohesive package than they normally create; I just wish the results weren't so unremarkable.

June 17, 2022 • Warner Music UK

Highlights Wake Me Up • 2am • Flutter