Antidotes

Indie stands for Independent

Mass popularity of indie rock music led to emergence of a whole cohort of similar-type bands. Every year new acts creep out from their basements and garages and every ear the age of musicians becomes younger. Of course, there is nothing bad in it but doubts creep in – are they really something they are trying to look like? When the band becomes well known even before their first album was launched it's easy to suppose that label's authority may apply not only to business side but to songwriting process too. Luckily this supposition may be easily disproved with the help of real examples. Even despite that fact that Foals act in the same marketing vein as the most of young indie-rockers of today this British band has one essential distinction. Their first album Antidotes sounds sufficiently original against a background of all debut indie-rock albums released this year. And it can be perceived as a signal that indie-rock is still independent.

Arrangements of the songs is the most prominent peculiarity of Antidotes

The stylistic of Foals' material is pretty hard to categorize. Their songs are soaked with typical taste of British indie rock but on the other hand it is impossible to skip the influence of electronic music either. The musicians cite mainstream pop artists such as Nelly Furtado and Gwen Stefani as major source of inspiration. Their predilection for post-punk is also obvious. In a word, their tastes are extremely diverse, but Foals not only adopt someone else's ideas they do have a plethora of their own ones. The most prominent peculiarity of the band is probably their way of arranging songs. It concerns guitars first of all. The guitarists are playing fast and try to fill the sonic space with a huge amount of notes and their parties are always shared between two or three instruments. The rhythm section, in its turn, creates strained pulsation and eventually it all turns into a pretty intensive sonic stream. However, in general it all sounds quite friendly and cheerful. It is also necessary to mention a good production of the album. The record sounds quite pure and sometimes reminds of Bloc Party.

Foals are shaping their style

However, it is still hard to recommend Antidotes to wide audience. It has its own charm indeed but it cannot be disclosed from the first listen. This band has its style but at this moment of time it is living through the initial stage of its evolution. In this sense a song called Balloons can be a good example. Electric Bloom looks appropriate too. But as a whole thing this album suffers from emotional monotony. The atmosphere of the songs looks quite similar and it rarely offers something fresh. In reality, Antidotes sounds just like the first album of a young band should. Slightly awkward, sometimes weird, sometimes resembling somebody else's music. In any event, it looks honest. There are no reasons to doubt in musicians' self-dependency neither in that that they will get back with a new and improved attempt quite soon. It is quite possible that Foals will manage to get shaped into a very strong band. The time will show. At the present moment we just have a glimpse of what is to come, hopefully they won't lose their inner excitement.