Foals old was, as I mentioned above, an abundance of skinny guitars and Philippakis' often slightly nonsensical yelping. It was pretty good, but on this their second full-length album, the Oxford outfit expand in every direction - Total Life Forever is leagues above Antidotes in texture, in depth, in grandeur and in intimacy. Philippakis even sings now!
I am an absolute sucker for albums that evolve along the line in some way or another, and Total Life Forever is a great example of such an album. The opening threesome is pretty accessible, and builds on the sound, sentiment and instrumentalization Foals brought to the table when they emerged a few years ago, and the rhythm section again impresses on the title track, 'Total Life Forever', which just rips in every a muscle to groove with it. But at track five, the soaring 'Spanish Sahara', that's where Foals really elevate their game to the absolute upper echelon of art rock. This song, along with its epic brother 'After Glow', the kind of tune that just cannot be heard too loud, are the true rubies on an album of many diamonds, and they share a pathos that dwarfs almost everything this side of Sigur Rós. The band fuses a lot of electronics with their trademark guitars on the latter part of the record, which enables them to become much more intimate, on tunes such as 'Alabaster' and '2 Trees'. Indeed, the album closes out in a pretty distant, more ethereal corner than it kicked off, but at no point does it loose its footing or become schizo.
This is really, impressively the sound of a band matured, a sound expanded but not by any means hollowed out or compromised. It's also really a slow-burner, and an album that definitely comes through for you only when you have the time and peace to listen to it alone, in your headphones. But the newfound patience and thoughtfulness suits the band well, and with Total Life Forever, Foals have skipped several steps of evolution to create a vivid joyride of a record abundant with striking musical wit.
