TLOBF Loves… Foals

Foals seem to split opinion. I have a couple of friends (no, really) who don’t like them at all. They feel they’re derivative, un-original and just plain boring. I don’t agree. I’ve not been more excited about a new band for some time. To me they don’t want to sound like anything other than the sounds that are in their heads.

Let’s take the single “Balloons” (released today) as an example. If any other ‘indie’ band in the UK covered this song, it’d quickly descend into a nonsense barrage of guitars, some shouty vocals and general boredom. However, Foals manage to mix a whole host of instruments and ideas into its three minutes. The twisted keyboards, saxophone and guitars fight for your attention, brawling for supremacy. I could coin the term ‘math-pop’ to describe their mixture of Talking Heads, Roxy Music and Battles into one, pure, blend of wondrous music. Their jittering rhythms and twisted riffs are something that has started to appeal to people who want something just a little bit more from their pop music.

The other thing I like about them is that they’ve not released their album yet. There must be a huge amount of pressure on them to put out a long player, but they’ve resisted. They’ve released singles, steadily, over the past year, toured relentlessly and generally just gone about being a band in the old fashioned manner. Building a fan base and sparking interest. I’m not going to call them the best hope for British music. But, for once, it’s nice to be able to champion a band from the UK that sparks something in me that I’ve not had from an act this side of the Atlantic in some time.

“Ballons” as performed on Later… With Jools Holland