FOALS - Antidotes LP (Recycled Colour vinyl)

Label: Transgressive

Oxford's Foals didn't release their debut full-length, Antidotes, until the spring of 2008, but they had already begun to make quite a name for themselves, thanks to the singles Hummer and Mathletics, and successful dates in the U.S. the preceding autumn; meaning, of course, that the anticipation for the record had plenty of time to grow. Fortunately, Antidotes is able to live up to the hype. Frontman Yannis Philippakis uses his limited vocal range to his greatest advantage, moving from yelps to half-whispered singing depending on the intensity of the piece. In fact, the one drawback of the album may be that Foals have only two types of songs: the fast(er), punchy ones and the slow(er), spacier ones. For bands whose sense of songcraft isn't strong, this would certainly be a detriment, but as Foals keep melody and hookiness at the forefront of their minds, the fact that much of their work sounds very similar (and is all practically in the same key) just adds a sense of cohesion to the record, shows that the group has a very clear idea of what it wants to sound like.