|
FOALS God bless Liam Gallagher. His music may be questionable at times, but his music criticism is hilarious. For every puddle of drool afforded the best-new-thing by slap-happy British tabloids, the Oasis singer is ready with a mop. Scissor Sisters? “Weirdos on stilts.” Kaiser Chiefs? “A bad Blur.” Bloc Party? “A band off (British quiz show) University Challenge.” You can only imagine the verbal bonbons Gallagher has in store for Oxford’s Foals, whose bristling, high-energy dance shtick borrows heavily from better U.K. bands—and whose members were gracing magazine covers months before the release of this underwhelming debut. To be fair, Antidotes didn’t ask to be foisted upon the world as revolutionary, and judged solely on its merits, the album fashions a pleasing-enough pastiche by cobbling together bits and pieces of its contemporaries: Klaxons’ end-of-days immediacy and Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke’s glass-eating bleats. It also transitions from same-sounding repetition (the first three songs’ hooks are indistinguishable) to something far more interesting by the finish. Cascading, trebly guitar lines and burbling bass melodies usurp Yannis Philippakis’ vocals not a moment too soon, and on the best tracks (Klaxons-carbon “Olympic Airways,” polyphonic screed “Big Big Love (Fig. 2)” and bleeping closer “Tron”), long-drawn crescendos take precedence over prematurely blown loads. It’s an lesson certain hype machines would do well to emulate. [Sub Pop, www.subpop.com] —Noah Bonaparte Pais
|
