Foals’ AntidoteFoals are the five hotly-tipped, hyper-cool Oxford dwelling haircuts that you’ve probably heard about. That’s because their name has been everywhere for over a year now. Last week saw the release of their debut
album ‘Antidotes’. Is it still cool to name drop them? Is it actually any good?

The Foals PR machine clicked into operation well over a year ago when they signed to Transgressive (home of The Young Knives, The Shins and Jeremy Warmsley). Since then they’ve set about enhancing their reputation as unique live performers. They really appeared on the press radar after some excellent reviews from shows at last year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

Depending on your opinion, or which review you read, they are either pop, funk, punk, post-punk, rock, math, indie, dance, techno, new rave, new wave or a mixture of any of these or more. Stop-start drums, repetitive bass lines and guitars fingered above the twelfth fret are some of the hallmarks. They wear their jeans tight and their guitars high.

I saw them at a small venue in Manchester last year, a few months before the Austin gigs. I was really taken aback by them. Their music was super-taut and it bounded with wit and excitement. It felt vital and current. Nobody knew them then, but they turned every stranger into a fan that night. I could hardly wait for the album.

Foals put ultra-hip producer Dave Sitek (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars) at the steering wheel of Antidotes. He brought the horns from afro-beat orchestra Atibalas with him and created an album of texture and atmosphere, dashed with reverb. Too much reverb apparently. His final cut was rejected, and remastered by the band for that reason.

It’s quickly apparent that Foals have made something distinct from their live performances here. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the absence of live stalwarts Hummer and Mathletics from the final cut.

To me Foals have at their core a simplicity and jagged urgency. This really comes across live and on early demos (and with songs like Hummer). However it’s really lacking on Antidotes and this ultimately left me with a twinge of disappointment.

It does seem they have wilfully made something different. For the most part however, it does work. There are some good moments to be had here, not least from the singles Cassius and Balloons. The ballad Red Socks Pugie really soars and Olympic Airways is one song which perhaps does benefit from this production of it.

It’s much more The Cure and Bloc Party than it is The Klaxons and Battles. That’s no insult and in all it’s still cool, and still essential for ‘08.

Foals’ Antidotes was released by Transgressive last week (24/03/08): Buy it from Amazon UK now.