Their fifth LP ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1’ is their career best to date; which is a mean feat given the math-rock collective haven’t released a bad album yet, not even a mediocre album either.
Merging their asymmetrical early math pop with the deep space atmospherics of Total Life Forever and Holy Fire, plus added innovations ... they’ve created an inspired album of scorched earth new music that, in all likelihood, will only really be challenged for album of the year by Part 2.
After an almost five-year break, how does a band respond when their peers have disappeared and younger bands are creeping up on your patch? As it turns out, by producing their best album yet.
This is Foals at their best, and we're only seeing half of the picture.
This is an album that establishes Foals as one of the most exciting and driven bands of the generation.
Part 1 is yet another banger-laden album, from an indie-rock machine who are now firmly established as one of the most consistent in their scene.
Foals have found a new zip to their grooves: this is a fitting soundtrack for a world mired in uncertainty.
Ferocious, fearless, and embracing of all of the world’s flaws, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part 1 is a phenomenal album that exists impressively on its own.
For the most part, Foals stick to what they know ... The Brit rockers fully understand what they excel at, and they take advantage of the syncopated brashness that they best exemplify.
Without the need to shoehorn every single idea onto on LP, we get a taut Foals record that runs less than forty minutes and that has one, consistently identifiable strand of sonic DNA running through it.
It is difficult to view Part 1 outside of its full context, yet listeners can hear both ambition and a refusal to stagnate on these songs.
Whether or not all of these stylistic shifts find some common ground with the release of volume two remains to be seen, but there's no denying the vitality that runs through this ten-song set, nor the inescapable feeling of doom.
‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1’ is not as immediate as previous releases, nor is it as infectious. It meanders more than it should and its structure isn’t as pronounced as on, say, ‘Holy Fire’.
The “Part 1” appellation to Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost is deflating as it is foretelling—Foals are half-stepping all over this thing.
While more worthwhile than Foals' last few albums, this first half of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost doesn't arouse too much excitement for Part 2.
Foals are not yet a bad band, they are still too competent for that, but this record's promise is blunted by its workmanlike enthusiasm.
Everything Not Saved is a fun record, but it’s hard to say if it will leave the mark that their ambitions lead us to believe they want it to.
UK rockers aim high on prog-pop concept set, with muddled, mostly generic results.
#3 | / | Gigwise |
#8 | / | NBHAP |
#11 | / | The Independent |
#15 | / | NME |
#29 | / | Q Magazine |
#88 | / | Les Inrocks |
#93 | / | Under the Radar |
/ | Radio X |