mvm.

| If it feels like you’re walking on a beach, it’s probably because you’re listening to Foals’ new release from this week, Life is Yours. |

 “We were thinking about parties, club nights and being drunk on the bus at 2am trying to get home. All of it: the excitement before you go out, meeting up with your friends, the wild abandon. ‘Who’s got the pingers? Where are we going?’ This is all of that youthful excess of going out.” Foals frontman spoke to NME on the privilege of living life to its fullest from the pandemic.

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Trawling through the back catalogue of Foals makes you realise that they were always destined to release such a bright and affirming record. From the record that adorned the pink palm trees on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Pt.1 to the pink roses taking centre stage on this cover, – and throughout the albums’ promo – it is another reminder to take the reigns and go party.

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Oh, now the sun is up
High in the sky
Lost in the sugar rush
Violet sky
Beachside candy cane
Blue tongues in summer rain

Oh my God!
Brighton rock!

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A cocktail of delight, Life is Yours is a trophy of summer-disco anthems. Released on the day of UK’s hottest day on record in June – aswell as in the midst of festival season in Europe – it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Now formally as a trio, they release a sought-after “going-out record” as the dabbling of a dancefloor record comes to alight after the work from “My Number” and “In Degrees.”

The self-titled starting song is a reaffirming nudge beckoning you back to the ocean for a fruitful getaway. We are then hit with a bluster of Wake Me Up, a frenzied punch of spirit as you lose your mind to the grooves of the dancefloor. 2am is then us on that same dancefloor within the twilight hours of a night-out, ultimately losing your friends but unwilling to sleep alone again as you saunter back home. 2001 would be that calm and elusive drive the morning after, along the coasts as you appreciate the wonders of life again – and begin to revitalise yourself from a rough night. No summer album is complete without an effervescent 80’s throwback of playful synth-new-wave as the technicolours of Under The Radar and The Sound. That’s not before, mind, we are whisked to ‘funkee’ Looking High, another belter sticking to a eutrophic chorus.

Despite this being a lockdown album that is anything but, the band had the issue of traipsing through live shows without any new music since early 2019. After the departure of keyboardist Edwin Congreave, things looked desperate. I think this is where the album gets lost in translation somewhat. Having to keep up with relevance and honing on a ‘greener path’, they had to make do with releasing 7 of the songs on the album as pre-singles. While all that is great, it results in an album often disjointed and bloated, dismantling an otherwise perfect record as it loses steam post-2001 as they begin to sound very same-y. That’s the combating nature of the industry at a time of need, I suppose.

Still, it’s important to stay indifferent to an otherwise album of true work to soundtrack your summer as we enter a new era with waves, sand, shore and sun for Foals.

So, get a drink and enjoy that sun.