Record Review: Foals - Antidotes

Rating: 4.1 / 10.0

I'll give you the bad news first. Think Bloc Party meets The Futureheads and they become obseesed with their ambition to be loved by all of England. That is Antidotes, the debut LP from Oxford's Foals, in a nutshell. It's not particularly original. The whole gang of quintessential indie touches is here: funky guitars, horns, "ba ba dah"s, what have you. I mean, it's dance-punky Britpop. Yannis Philippakis is yet another lead singer in a Britpop band to flaunt his regional accent like it's a goddamned prize. It's the most narcissistic, self-aware, contrived record I've heard in a while. There is nothing close to a natural impulse on this record. It never even sniffs of organic. All it is is fake, polished, and prepared.

But for all the grandstanding and pretence of this record, I think it warrants saying that it's still a pretty interesting listen. Okay. It's a britpop record that delivers everything you would expect from a britpop record and nothing - absolutely nothing - that you wouldn't. The hooks are pretty memorable and decently good. The production is very slick and clean (they axed Dave Sitek's - of TV on the Radio fame - mix because there it had too much reverb). Generally speaking, this band takes a page right out of Bloc Party's (circa Silent Alarm) playbook, and throws in more of a punk sensibility. If it didn't sound so sterile, I would be more inclined to excuse this lack or originality. But as it is, this record is little more than flat-out forgery.

It's a shame, because they aren't bad musicians at all. Opening track "The French Open" is a jammy funk fest that allows the talented rhythm section to showcase its ample collective chops. The horns here settle into the support role they play throughout the record. Philippakis's Kele Okereke-inspired chanting/yelping vocal style dominates here and throughout the record, and is inevitably proves to be the weakest link in an otherwise strong - if unoriginal - sound. "Red Socks Pugie" is the most blatant show of laziness with regard to coming up with a decent melody, but the rest of the band creates a tight framework where no shortage of melodies could very comfortably be incorporated. "Two Steps, Twice" is the most shameful exercise in Bloc Party apery (though "Tron" and "Electric Bloom" are right up there too). They don't actually do a terrible job in sounding like Bloc Party, but it sounds like they're trying so damn hard that it ceases to be impressive.

So everything you will hear here has already been done better by someone else. But there's something intangible here...something like talent. I think Foals could, at one stage, be a great band that puts out great albums, provided that they just get over themselves first. This record is brimming with promise (despite what the rating may imply), but it shows a band far too concerned with what everybody else thinks about them. It's hard to beat Bloc Party at their own game. So I think Foals should redirect their efforts to figuring out what Foals sound like, and then trying to sculpt their next record around that sound. Just a suggestion.

-PTC