When Foals emerged with their frenetic, dancefloor-filling 7” single ‘Hummer/Astronauts and All’ in 2007, the siren had sounded on years of insouciance and informality. A band that turned Oxford parties on their head with helter-skelter shows in bedrooms and garages had finally pledged their recording commitment after years of dilly-dallying.
This would be their first 7” post Andrew Mears and their ultimate springboard – ‘Hummer’ receiving recognition by form of a TV tracklisting through celebrated teen drama Skins.
They would then unveil their debut album Antidotes in 2008 based on a stipulation of pure staccato instrumentation and heightened guitar pitching. Critically questioned for its musical potpourri, the album would become adored by UK college skylarkers who thrived off its discordance.
Through follow-up albums Total Life Forever, Holy Fire and What Went Down, Foals matured and grew into their sound without expansive alteration – they were committed to their aesthetic but were by no means stagnating.
Taking the jump from bandrooms to arenas behind their visceral live performances and strengthening discography, there has seldom been more anticipation for a fifth album – and to the delight of listeners around the world – it will be coming in two.
2019 will welcome Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 and Part 2, the former to be released on Friday March 8, the latter in Spring.
Speaking on the album’s compartment, recognised Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis says it was a matter of creative superfluity.
“It was in response to the amount of music we had and the quality of it,” he says. “All the songs that are coming out felt like they had to come out and at the same time there were symmetries in the material – we had opening tracks, closing tracks and in order to put them on one album we would have lost some because it would have been too overwhelming.
“There are also a lot of contrasting differences in the style of the tracks and we wanted to make two cohesive records that have their own distinctive character and that can also be enjoyed separately rather than losing a bunch of tracks that we felt everybody should hear or putting everything onto one and making a casserole of nonscience.”
The segmented parts will also give to greater liberty on the road and stands as an important challenge for a band that had already achieved so much but could achieve so much more.
“It keeps touring fresh,” Philippakis says. “It means a year into the tour we have all this new material and get to redo the set. For us, it was also a bigger creative challenge writing two albums, doing the artwork for two albums and finding ways to link the records. It was just a bigger process and one that we felt was more fulfilling.”
Sculpting each of the records proved to be a huge challenge for the four-piece, as they had a collection of tracks but no certainty of where they would fit.
“We knew what would open and close the records in a way and then there was just a lot of Tetris going on in between and we only really settled on the tracklist at the very very last minute,” Philippakis explains.
On Part 1, this creates an immersive listening experience that doesn’t follow a strict timeline – it’s rambunctious and startles with each left turn or innovative burst. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 is like nothing Foals has ever produced but is still the epitome of a band that prides themselves on building suspense before unleashing.
Philippakis says there was plenty of elements on Part 1 that broke new ground for the Oxford rockers.
“The bassline in ‘Syrups’, that was one of the first things that was written and I was like, ‘We haven’t done anything like this before’ that had that kind of hip hop swagger almost or kind of like an old dubby influence,” he says.
“‘Café D’Athens’ and ‘In Degrees’ were things that I recorded on my own initially and I approached them with a different writing mindset than I had before. I think we were just excited by textures and sonics more rather than just getting into a live room with a bunch of guitars and bashing it out that way. We got more into the actual soundscapes of the songs on this one which is why there’s more synthesisers and that’s why some of these songs have gone that way.”
If the album’s musical dexterity isn’t a reflection of life’s constant whirlwind then its lyricism assumes this responsibility – Philippakis basing the narrative around three core concepts, stating environmental uncertainty, political instability and technological suppression as the album’s central themes.
The songwriter has penned something that speaks to the world as it is today, not yesterday, not the day before but now and it is this currency that could position the record as a springboard for discussion and change. This accompanied with an equally prominent follow-up and Foals’ dual-wielded 2019 enterprise could prove decisive and combatant against the weight of the world.
Foals’ new album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1, will be released to the world on Friday March 8 through Warner Bros Records.
