Foals have had an unlikely trajectory to festival headliners. They’re one of the few relevant rock acts left on the planet and yet they’ve always retained their alternative core, keeping an ever-growing circle of cult fans around them. Where other bands of a similar ilk, say Kings Of Leon or The Black Keys, have ditched their roots for stadium rock, Foals have remained consistent, never clocking a top 10 single but always packing out festival grounds. Instead of enlisting bigger producers and guests for each effort, they’ve become more insular. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost is their first self-produced effort and it’s one that feels like it defines them as a band better than ever before.
With each release, Foals have gotten heavier and darker, disowning the preppy vibes of their debut Antidotes and extending further and further away from the springy groove of Total Life Forever. What Went Down was a mighty album. A frantic, dense rock record that howled with a sense of ambition. Almost a decade after Total Life Forever, you wouldn’t imagine the band detouring back towards its groove but on the first part of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost they have found a way to retain the intensity of their rock work and incorporate the effortless, swampy melodies that defined the early sound of the band. As a result, the band feels lighter than ever. Their first album of 2019, glides by in a confident swoop, serving us rhythmic guitars, giddy dance beats and the most unforced vocals of Yannis Phillippakis’ career. It’s perhaps not what we would’ve expected from a project that finishes on a song titled I’m Done With The World (And It’s Done With Me).
We’re eased into this project with opener Moonlight which arrives on a bed of light electronic work and atmospheric vocals. It’s climatic but not heavy. Gone is the bold, in-your-face attitude of What Went Down. It’s replaced with a subtlety that continues on first single Exits - a song that doesn’t strike you as first single material but wins over with a slowly growing hook and a textured performance by Phillippakis. This more gentle work is what gives the album its tropical climate. It always feels as if a storm is brewing and while we come close, it never truly hits. It may sound frustrating but it’s a beautiful place to be in particularly when they’re stirring the pot on the muddy Syrups with guitar storms wafting in and out.
The most impressive thing the band do on this album is embrace every aspect of their sound, developed over the last 10 years or so. Foals have always given us one or the other - funk or rock - on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, they’ve found a way to give us both without leaning too far into one. White Onions is a stunning example of this as they blend crunching guitars with a light top-line. Phillippakis’ delivery is intense but there’s a bounce to his movement that we haven’t really seen since something like Two Steps, Twice.
The last album was weighty - both lyrically and sonically - but there’s a certain optimism to this one. Don’t get us wrong, they haven’t suddenly put on rose coloured glasses but their nihilism is challenged with solutions. The band are focussing on the world around them rather than just internal struggles. It’s dark. Exits is about technology surveillance and hiding from climate change but there’s an escapism behind it all. Even on the brooding closer I’m Done With The World (And It’s Done With Me) Phillippakis has lost hope but he’s looking for a way out.
On album highlight Sunday Phillippakis sings, “cities burnt but we don’t give a damn because we’ve got all our friends right here.” Somehow amongst all this turmoil the band has found its clearest head and it results in some glorious times. The beat change in Sunday is one of the most thrilling switch-ups the band has ever given us and it extends from an elongated, laid-back moment. Finally Foals aren’t afraid to take us to the dancefloor instead. That fist slowly unclenches, loosening fully for the unapologetically groovy On The Luna.
Part 2 is said to be bringing a heavier, arena-focussed sound that may improve or detract from Part 1 but for now we have this beautifully realised, internal project. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost draws on everyone of Foals’ strengths and defines them better than ever. Five albums in, they’ve stopped aiming to be something and embraced what they are.
Foals’ Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 is out tomorrow.
