Total Life Forever

Foals | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sub Pop
• ASIN: B003H8WSLQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,099 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Antidotes, the acclaimed debut album by UK quintet Foals, won them attention, and the opportunity to evolve in a space of their own. Two years on from that impressive introduction, Total Life Forever is the sound of a band settling into and surveying the decay of old protocols. Written primarily in the basement of their Oxford HQ and recorded in Gothenburg, Total Life Forever is an album as persuasive emotionally as Antidotes was physically.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Album of the Year Candidate, June 16, 2010

By 

Brooke Oates "Tin Bird" (VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Total Life Forever (Audio CD)

Wow. How to describe this album. Much more thought out than the first. More mellow at times. Recognizable as Foals, but with a distinct air of cohesiveness and maturation that was not there before. I'm struggling for comparisons...One thing I like is that the album seems to have been created as a whole album..all the tracks fit and create a sense of meaning to the work as a whole. It's in the realm of a Talk Talk Spirit of Eden in terms of how all of the tracks fit together. One possible signpost might be the new Jack Penate album...mines similar territory a bit. great, great album that will stay with me for a while. Spiritual, deep lyrics too.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful head trip!, June 15, 2010

By 

Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Total Life Forever (Audio CD)

"Blue blood" opens Foals new CD and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were listening to Vampire Weekend. The song is groovy Bass- heavy Rock with trilling soukous guitar. Produced this time around by Luke Smith (formerly from Alt Rock band Clor, their debut was produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek), where "Antidotes" was a more electronic Dance/Rock affair, "Total life forever" is groovier with a loose feel.

"Miami' finds lead singer Yannis Philippakis sounding all Robert Smith-like on a catchy midtempo groove. The Dancey title track with chanted vocals sounds like Foals of yore. The stomping "Black gold" features choppy riffs and haunting harmonies with a euphoric climax. "The future is not what it used to be" sings Philippakis in a new found croon.

It's tough to pick a standout really, the almost 7 minute-long epic ballad "Spanish sahara" (with a slow building intro, increasing in tension before exploding into life towards the end), the frantic "This Orient" (with dizzying guitars), the piano interlude "Fugue", "After glow" (starts off as a ballad, leading to stomping Disco-tinged climax), the falsetto sung "Alabaster" (which starts off elegiac, building to a ballad with crunching/fuzzy beats), "2 trees" (with a floaty feel), and closing atmospheric ballad "What remains", everything thrills.

As good as their debut was, this is even more ambitious and wide screen. A wonderful head trip!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good good good good, July 24, 2010

By 

evanjamesroskos "ejr" (nj) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Total Life Forever (MP3 Download)

Total Life Forever took me a few listens and there are some great, great tracks here (Spanish Sahara, After Glow, 2 Trees). It's definitely more mellow than Antidotes. And there aren't as many moments here that blow me away as on their prior album.

Still, I will buy the next Foals album without question. To be clear -- this is not a misstep or a disappointment - because how could anyone better a debut as good as Antidotes?