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Album Details
- Artist: Foals
- Album: Antidotes
- Label: Sub Pop
- Year of Release: 2008
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: soundaslanguage on 2008-06-04
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RecommendLesson #1 when trying to gather hype for a band. Release as much stuff as you can before you release a debut full-length. Cause when you release that debut full-length you simply can not hide behind only 1 or 2 songs anymore. Lesson #2 sign to a big indie label like Merge, Matador or maybe even Sub Pop. Lesson #3 make sure you hire a high-profile indie producer for that debut-full length so he can mask all your deficiencies. Perhaps you can even find one who is already in a hip indie band like David Sitek from TV On The Radio. Lesson #4 let him produce the record but reject his final mix for the album. It creates intrigue and controversy. It is all about stirring the pot! Lesson #5 include those hit singles that got you where you are as bonus tracks on the album. I mean, they haven’t been heard enough already, right?
Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh with my assessment. The point is that I can definitely see why people might be hating on Foals. The ingredients are certainly present. But, as much as I wanted to dislike Foals’ debut full-length album, Antidotes, it just never happened. With every listen, the band won me over more and more. Foals do more with less than any band I can recall. The band has only two speeds yet, the tracking of the album is so on point that the listener hardly notices the band’s lack of tempo shifts. David Sitek should be commended as his organic production adds a great deal of depth to the band’s brand of jittery pop. The instrumental additions of horns and organ give ample weight to the band’s often monochromatic sounds. Foals are able to wrap their songs with a unique repetition that hypnotizes the listener. Before you know it, 14 songs and nearly an hour of music has gone by. No matter what style, tempo or angle Foals choose to attack from, they are successful more times than not. So, ignore the naysayers, Foals do indeed have the antidote for boring indie rock.
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on 2012-02-10 CharlesMartel Said:
After listening to a considerable number of the most highly-regarded indie albums of the last decade or so, I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to " Antidotes" by the Foals. Unlike so many other albums which have been critically acclaimed this one was not as uniformly awful and unlistenable as I might have feared. When you hear the albums opening song, " The French Open" , you may actually like it. The main problem however with this album is that " The French Open" is then repeated ten times, for varying lengths of time and under a variety of aliases until it comprises " Antidotes ".
The song is perhaps best described as a mixture of African inspired rhythms over a danceable slightly syncopated beat. It is kind of ska, but without the catchiness. To be fair, "The French Open" the first version and "The French Open" the second version are reasonable to listen to and have enough quirkiness to hold your attention. The problem is that it doesn't get any better. By the time of " The French Open " the fourth version, the vocals have begun to irritate and the English language is being strained into forms and stresses it was never meant to achieve. The seventh version of " The French Open " adds a horn section, and while this initially gives you the feeling that you might be listening to a different song, you soon realise that it is just " The French Open " again.
You may, at this point in the review, detect a pattern emerging. And you'd be correct. The Foals have a problem they are basically a one trick pony, which grew up, ran the Grand National, fell at Beecher's Brook, got put out to stud, died of old age and then had its corpse mercilessly bastinadoed. Any hope that that the album is going to get any better quickly disappears. If you don't like the opening track, don't listen to the rest of it because you won't like the other ten. If you do like the opening track, don't listen to the rest of it because you have heard it all already.
And yet, this is just what the in-crowd want. Something new to crow about and identify with as music's next best thing. And they are all going to like it so that they can all fit in with each other. "Antidotes " gets five stars for " The French Open" being an okay song and two stars knocked off for the fact it is repeated time and time again. The best thing I can say about this album is that it is not Franz Ferdinand.
Rating: 3/10
