Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 //Warner Bros// (Released 8th March)

Description

£23.99 – LP

From playing chaotic house parties in their home city of Oxford to becoming major festival headliners across Europe, Foals’ trajectory has been remarkable. They’ve earned critical acclaim and fan devotion in equal measure. And while the majority of contemporaries have fallen by the wayside, Foals continue to hit new peaks.

After more than a decade in the game, Foals again embrace that love for the unconventional with the bravest and most ambitious project of their career: not one, but two astonishing new albums: Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost. A pair of releases, separate but related, they share a title, themes and artwork. ‘Part 1’ will be released in March, with ‘Part 2’ following in the Autumn. “They’re two halves of the same locket”, frontman Yannis Philippakis explains. “They can be listened to and appreciated individually, but fundamentally, they are companion pieces”.

Fundamentally tethered but possessing their own personalities, the two bodies capture the most compelling, ambitious and cohesive creations they’ve ever produced. Eager to break the traditional pop song structure which they felt they were becoming increasingly tapered to, the 20 tracks defy expectation. There are exploratory, progressive-tinged tracks alongside atmospheric segues which make the music an experience rather than a mere collection of songs. Yet the band’s renowned ability to wield relentless grooves with striking power and skyscraper hooks also reaches new heights.

The album’s lead single “Exits” is a case in point, featuring Philippakis conjuring the image of a disorienting world via a contagious vocal melody. It’s a fresh anthem for Foals’ formidable arsenal, but also an ominous forecast.

“There’s a definite idea about the world being no longer habitable in the way that it was”, says Yannis. “A kind of perilousness lack of predictability and a feeling of being overwhelmed by the magnitudes of the problems we face. What’s the response? And what’s the purpose of any response that one individual can have?”.

“Exits” signposts what to expect thematically from both instalments of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost. The title is a warning that anything – from the tiniest fleeting moment of inspiration through to the planet’s own biological diversity – can be under threat of being irrevocably erased.

It’s a theme that permeates throughout the album’s material, as Foals mirror the public neuroses that have been provoked by our current cultural climate. Paranoia of state surveillance? Fear of environmental collapse? Anxiety over Trump’s next potentially cataclysmic move? It’s all there in these apocalyptic songs.

“Lyrically, there are resonances with what’s going on in the world at the moment” summarises Yannis. “I just feel like, what’s the utility of being a musician these days, if you can’t engage with at least some of this stuff? These songs are white flags, or they’re SOSs, or they’re cries for help… each in a different way”.

Tracklisting:

A1. Moonlight

A2. Exits

A3. White Onions

A4. In Degrees

A5. Syrups

B1. On the Luna

B2. Cafe D’Athens

B3. Surf Pt.1

B4. Sunday

B5. I’m Done With The World (& It’s Done With Me)