![]() That’s not a riff for indie discos full of awkward white boys to begrudgingly shimmy to, that’s a riff to start moshpits in festival fields that resemble the ending of Braveheart. So, when Yannis Phillipakis yells “I CAN’T GET E-NUFF…” at 1:46, Foals were already primed to launch into the stratosphere.īut when that riff follows, drop-D tuning slathered in fuzz-pedal and playing a seven-note scale so simple that even a rank amateur can replicate it, Foals no longer want to be NME-famous. The guitars have more of a thick crunch (even with the delay pedal usage) than in any prior Foals song, the bass is groovy but with a swaggering low-end more akin to heavy rock, and the gradual progression – adding new instrumental lines and chord changes just when the song threatens to get static – is not too far removed from the EDM ‘build-peak-drop’ structure which dominated turn-of-the-10s pop music. The big “oh, shit” moment is at that 1:46 mark, of course, but the prior build sets up the realisation beautifully. With ‘Inhaler,’ though, Foals aim squarely for that next level. READ MORE: The Other Fellow – Documentary Review A first listen to ‘Spanish Sahara’ does not immediately convey a band who will be selling out the Royal Albert Hall twice over one album cycle later. Foals had shifted their sound, but not in a way which indicated grand mainstream ambitions. Sophomore LP Total Life Forever saw them shifting into more atmospheric, slow-burn waters, best encapsulated by transcendent lead-off single ‘Spanish Sahara.’ But for all of the album’s high points, it was certainly a transitory record, remaining insular, emotionally-cryptic if not outright-cold, and sounded just as rigid and precise in its own way as debut Antidotes. ![]() The Oxford quintet were already one of the more noteworthy and promising names in the late-00s British indie crop – the NME class given the instantly-dreadful monicker of “ nu-rave” – known for their highly-technical math-rock-indebted bangers which so perfectly slid into a Skins soundtrack that they actually got to perform on Skins. On November 5 th 2012, about 1:46 into comeback single ‘Inhaler’, Foals levelled up. They don’t want to just be a popular guitar band, they want to be Popular TM. They don’t want to be MySpace’s favourite band, they want to be Radio 1’s favourite band. ![]() They don’t want to be sixth down on a festival bill, they want to top-line it. That they’re no longer content with selling out rooms, they want to sell out arenas. ![]() It’s a rare but magical thing when you can instantly tell that a band is levelling up before your ears. ![]()
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