Foals -‘Holy Fire’ ( Transgressive)

So, six weeks into 2013, there’s every sign that this is going to be a phenomenal year for music, right? And one of the most anticipated albums of the year was Foals’ third album, Holy Fire. This album is already out, it’s debuted at no.2 in the proper album chart- so is there any point in me writing about it?

Well…yes. Because the reality is that Foals have made their best album yet, and if I can persuade anyone else out there that they ought to check them out, then it will be worth it. There will be those who still file Foals under the ‘just another indie band’ but Foals have never been just another landfill guitar group. Their debut Antidotes showed them to be more indebted to acts like Shellac and Four Tet than say Oasis and The Libertines.

And on Holy Fire, Foals show that they can do anthemic, but entirely on their own terms. the album is bookended by ‘Prelude’ and ‘Moon’ and inbetween, the band are pretty much firing on all cylinders. The singles ‘Inhaler’ and ‘My Number’ give an idea of what you might expect, but this is more than an album just cobbled together to support a couple of tracks.

This is an album that hopefully will take the band to a new level of recognition, whilst still remaining true to themselves.

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Holy Fire is out now on Transgressive