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Certified. Multi-Platinum dance-fuelled POP bring back their magic to successive fourth in seven years.

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The redefining imagery of 2011’s Torches will always be an indie indent into our adolescence. Trumped by 14-times Platinum debut of Pumped Up Kicks, the album brought about a change in indie discography perhaps changing the landscape of dance-y indie-pop for good. The album was that good, the fondness of such an album managed to bleed into the LA groups two successive albums. Both Supermodel and Sacred Hearts Club landed plausible spots in sales, despite them not hitting the same eager, easy-to-please mark that Torches did. Despite many indie noughties band that seemingly feel off of the face of the Earth from their debut, Foster the People embellished their flourishing of dance-pop and carved a seismic size big enough for them, that whatever they did – folks would love it: fans and critics alike.

Like the fitting title, Coming of Age saw the band take a more sedative approach in the studio, refining their chops and coming with an album that was equally catchy. Sit Next To Me brought a shift in electronic waves for the band in 2017, as ’80s nostalgia pilfered into their sound. Now, we are hear in the wake of the bands’ fourth studio album. For many, four albums in the span of fourteen years may be a consequential mistake in not milking the money cow enough – certain labels will certainly be shaking their heads at such a span. But, Foster the People strike me as the type to do half-heartedly pump out records at blistering speeds to quench the thirst of the industry vampires. It seems that every release is methodical and considerate, as each welcome a different shade to show off. Each one more mature than the next.

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It’s only fitting then that their fourth excursion is of looking back. See You in the Afterlife, Take Me Back, Let Go, Chasing Low Vibrations. With that ever-present dance-pop backdrop, the vocal highlines desire of something already gone.

Released in the heightened forays of a brat summer, Paradise State of Mind is an equally exciting project. It’s front-runner Lost in Space is a ravers’ wet dream. Dub techno blows the bass out – it appears we’ve slightly come away from the spacecraft, but we don’t really care. The lazy free-feeling Let Go has remarks of something that Kevin Parker may play around with. The Impala impressions aren’t just on the odd song either, the guys’ fingerprints are all over this project. Not that’s a bad thing. The trippy psychedelics of The Holy Shangri-La and title track post a poignant thought to the unknown universe and all that encompasses it. Chasing Low Vibrations lush bass lulls similar to Impala’s lead The Less I Know, The Better but brings it to a wonderful quell of groove and seduced dancing, rounding out a particular highlight of mine on the record.

Long gone are the anthemic indie-rock roundhouses of Torches. Paradise State of Mind is an album in an alternative universe with an alternative Foster the People, lost in a lot of thoughts and a lot of space for imagination. A little too heavy-handed on the Tame Impala influences, but it’s something that breathes all the same with the same energy and creativity we’ve loved from the LA duo.