Following a long and slow lockdown for many, indie-giants Foals, with their newest album ‘Life is Yours’, provide the breath of fresh air we’ve all been needing.
The Oxford legends burst into action on opener (and title track), Life Is Yours, a groovy, staccato song set the morning after the night before. However, this song is no hangover, and your head will be banging in quite a different way. The next track, and the first of the singles, ‘Wake Me Up’, follows; a vibrant track which excellently ties together Foals’ classic indie rock sound with their new found disco direction. Next comes ‘2am’, another one of the singles released before the album. With a leading bassline accompanied by synths and keyboards, this is clearly the peak of the album. The synths, however, take a step back on the next track, the most melodic song on the album, ‘2001’. Featuring a funky, jangly rhythm guitar as a backdrop to frontman Yannis’ spectacular voice, the song is easily another highlight on the album.
After an interlude of a seemingly Nile Rogers-inspired bassline, the second-side of the album begins, and it fails to deliver on the promise of the first. ‘Flutter’ flies by without an impact, ‘Looking High’, which is the highlight of the second half of the album but, despite this, brings nothing new to Life is Yours. The album slowly drags to a close with the band clearly lacking the imagination needed to hold the audiences’ attention on songs. ‘Under the Radar’ very much fulfils the promise of its name, and the ‘Crest of the Wave’ crashes down into the repetitive track ‘The Sound’, before the album is wrapped up on the far too long ‘Wild Green’.
After such a promising first half, filled with future indie disco classics, this album unfortunately runs out of steam very quickly. Despite the fantastic start, the second half of the album is so weak compared to the brilliance of the first that it causes Life is Yours to buckle under the weight, falling from the heights of a work-of-art to something that is simply good.
Rating: 7/10
